Pink Swirling Pentagons

[Only 2 of the 4 pentagons completed so far fit on my flatbed scanner.]

I became obsessed with the swirly pentagons in the bookstore and started a swatch right away. You can read about my gauge trials ad nauseum here. Fortunately, after some sleep, my gauge problem corrected itself. I had miscounted the number of stitches.

Anyhow, the doubled pink yarn gives me 17 sts/4" and 20 sts per side of the pentagon gives me the right size pentagon for a size S. Because my gauge is slightly bigger than the yarn used in the book, I will use the directions for XS which will (hopefully) make a Small sweater.

Since I fell in love with the pentagons, I am knitting them first. (It's also because I saw Grumperina's pictures. The thought of turning the whole sweater round and round and round just made me feel tired.) After I knit the yoke, I plan to knit the body and sleeves in the round from the bottom, join them at the underarm, and continue knitting until I get to the yoke. I haven't decided yet whether to graft the live stitches to the cast on edges of the yoke or to bind off the body and sleeve stitches. Anybody have thoughts on this approach?

Knitting 1x1 rib in the cabled cotton yarn is hard on my hands and wrists. I can make about 2 pentagons a day before it starts to hurt. Maybe I will start on a sleeve and finish the rest of the pentagons another day.

Like Christine, I had difficulty figuring out the best way to knit these units. I tried magic loop with one circular (click for result) , 6 double pointed needles and finally settled on knitting with two cirulars. As I worked inwards, the dangling ends of the circulars became more and more awkward. But they still beat the DPNs falling out everywhere, dropping stitches. Magic loop worked well on the outer part of the pentagon, but became unwieldy towards the middle.

keywords: Knitting Nature, Norah Gaughan, Swirled Pentagon Pullover