TDSS Aran: Cables flowing into ribbing

I've been working on my Top-Down Saddle-Shoulder Aran cardigan. As I was heading my way on down the sleeve towards the cuff, I was wondering what I was going to do when I got there. I've always admired sweaters where the cable patterns flow into the ribbing, and I wanted to somehow make it happen. Would I have to put the stitches on hold and come back to it later when I had figured it out?

Fortunately I was inspired just when I needed to be while spending an afternoon in the fresh air and sun a week ago with a pair of knitting friends, and all of the sleeve tapering decreases were done.

The 14-stitch wide Aran Braid going down the center of the sleeve didn't have enough elasticity widthwise to continue downwards in to ribbing, but if I made it narrower - only 6 stitches wide - it should be stretchier than the 14-st braid. So I tried that, changing the 4 sts on either side of it to 2 purls and a 2-st cable crossing every 4 rows. Normally I'd expect to have to decrease stitches below a cable, but it seems to work OK without doing so since I went down 1.0 mm in needle size and have the purl sts in there. The 2-st Snakey or Wavy cables continue down as do the 4-st Rope cables, and the Rice Stitch filler becomes knit 2/purl 2 rib. I'm rather happy with how it turned out.

Currently I'm working on the other sleeve, and am planning an evening of DVD watching and knitting. I want to hurry up and get it done so I can move on to my next project which is the Aran Diamond Vest.

This too is another class sample, but I'm eager to work on it now that I have the yarn for it. For years I have wanted wheat/light tan heather vest because it would go with so many fall clothes. Twice I've had problems with the yarn I've used for just plain stockinette vests.

One time I used some single-ply 100% wool wheat tweed on a cone that still had the spinning oil in it. The yarn bloomed when the vest was washed and blocked but unexpectedly lost some length. From that experience I learned that I should have skeined the yarn off the cone and washed it first.

Another time I used some wool that smelled and felt oily in the balls. After washing and blocking it still felt funny unfortunately. Since I had had a successful attempt at removing the oiliness from another yarn, this was a big disappointment. But, hey live and learn, right?