I have come to the conclusion, that Shedir is most definitely a labor of love.  I’m very pleased that I finally knit this hat, making it for a friend in need, but wow, it was a whole lot of cables to knit!

At one point, I looked up “cabling without a cable needle.  I really like the technique that Grumperina has documented on her blog.  But – this project just didn’t lend itself to doing that for me.  It would have been like trying to do that with a sock project…and the irony of it kind of made me smile.  I thought to myself – at some point someone thought – man, I wish I had a small double-pointed needle I could hold this stitch on and they “invented” the cable needle – and now we’ve had and used them for all these years and we’re trying to “unvent” them and do cabling WITHOUT a needle.   So I stuck with my new little Brittany cable needle and the project picked up it’s own rhythm.  I will likely try the cabling without a needle on a larger gauge project like a sweater, or even a hat with a heavier gauge yarn,  where I’m using wool and a larger needle.

This yarn is Knitpicks Comfy sport.  I imagine it’s their answer to Rowan Calmer, which is the yarn called for in the pattern.  It’s a cotton/acrylic blend and it has a nice soft feel to it, so should make for a nice comfortable chemo cap. But cotton is always a workout for my fingers and wrists.  Just not as comfortable to work with as wool is.

The pattern was first published at Knitty.com in 2004, and they have packaged this pattern with a few other breast cancer awareness type patterns here.

The only issue I had with the pattern is that the marker that designates the beginning of a row is moved a few times – that part was okay – but it isn’t necessarily NOTED on the chart in all places it gets moved, so you had better know how to read a chart.  Or…just make a note on the pattern that the marker gets moved at the end of rows 53, 55,56,58,62 64 (2 sts), and 70.   The last stitch in each of those rows (or in the case of row 64 the last two stitches) becomes the first stitch in the following row and the row marker gets moved accordingly.  I looked around the Internet for some kind of errata on Shedir and found almost nothing.  Finally, one blog had made a remark about it, and it helped me figure out why I couldn’t get row 63 to work for me.

Project specs:

• I used a size 2 needle (I didn’t think I was a loose knitter, but 3′s were too big for gauge for me).
• KP Comfy Sport, Color 0638.

Difficulty rating I guess I’d have to say a little more of a challenge than “easy” – mostly it’s just labor-intensive – but definitely “doable” for someone with a little experience.  And, it’s one of those patterns I had to really  to pay attention to at first, but eventually the patterning “clicks” – right about the time it’s time to start switching from the cables to the lattice is when it happened to me.  Shedir is a very satisfying project because it’s such an ingenious pattern.  I’m going to do it again some day – right after I forget how much work it is!