Playing With My Head
It's always reasonable to say that your eyes can play tricks on you. What's NOT reasonable is when they do it to you with a beloved knitting project that you've been working on forever (or seems like forever!). Yes, I'm referring to my Finn wool sweater! (knit in-the-round, bottom up). I suppose it all started way back at the lower body when, for no real reason, I happened to measure and discovered my gauge was miles off and I had to decrease to get it back on track size-wise. I like slightly oversize sweaters but this was definitely well into gunny-sack territory!! It made me completely distrust my gauge, my stitch count and my visual perception.
So here I am working my way up the yoke, after attaching the sleeves and working fastidiously on the multiple cable patterns and raglan decreases ... we're talking hours and hours of knitting here, folks! I even counted the rows to find out how close I was to beginning the neckline.... and I have switched the stitches from a 24" circular needle to a 16" circular needle because, of course, with all those decreases, it's shrinking. And that's when the trouble started....
I don't care whether you wear glasses or not, but ANY number of stitches on a 16" circular needle looks small - really small! And that little joke I made a while back about the sweater looking like a frilly dress for a 5 yr old started to come back to haunt me.... I began to wonder, really seriously wonder if I had made a HUGE mistake at the lower body and decreased when I should have just left it alone and kept on knitting in blind faith. Was there the very real possibility that I might as well rip out all my hard work, rather than finish a knitting disaster???? ..... Finally, I couldn't take the doubt any more! With a knot in my stomach I threaded some waste yarn onto a darning needle and lifted all the stitches off the circular needle and left lots of slack .... and then I tried it on....
Let me begin by saying that the fact I could get it on made me feel better immediately!! It IS a little more snug than I like to wear my sweaters but nothing that losing 10 pounds wouldn't fix!! LOL!! WHEW!!!! I didn't know whether to laugh with relief or cry to vent the frustration!! Unblocked cables really are scrunched up which significantly added to the illusion of diminished size. It is also a deliberately short-waisted sweater, mostly because yours truly is! Anyways, I have it all back on the needle and am continuing very peacefully now, secure in the knowledge that it is worth finishing (I can't believe I said that!). Not entirely sure what lesson has come out of all of this though..... If I can't trust my gauge and my eyes deceive me, what's a knitter to do??? Start to make friends with the tape measure, I guess, and really work at it being a long-term meaningful relationship!! ROFL!! Until next time,
So here I am working my way up the yoke, after attaching the sleeves and working fastidiously on the multiple cable patterns and raglan decreases ... we're talking hours and hours of knitting here, folks! I even counted the rows to find out how close I was to beginning the neckline.... and I have switched the stitches from a 24" circular needle to a 16" circular needle because, of course, with all those decreases, it's shrinking. And that's when the trouble started....
I don't care whether you wear glasses or not, but ANY number of stitches on a 16" circular needle looks small - really small! And that little joke I made a while back about the sweater looking like a frilly dress for a 5 yr old started to come back to haunt me.... I began to wonder, really seriously wonder if I had made a HUGE mistake at the lower body and decreased when I should have just left it alone and kept on knitting in blind faith. Was there the very real possibility that I might as well rip out all my hard work, rather than finish a knitting disaster???? ..... Finally, I couldn't take the doubt any more! With a knot in my stomach I threaded some waste yarn onto a darning needle and lifted all the stitches off the circular needle and left lots of slack .... and then I tried it on....
Let me begin by saying that the fact I could get it on made me feel better immediately!! It IS a little more snug than I like to wear my sweaters but nothing that losing 10 pounds wouldn't fix!! LOL!! WHEW!!!! I didn't know whether to laugh with relief or cry to vent the frustration!! Unblocked cables really are scrunched up which significantly added to the illusion of diminished size. It is also a deliberately short-waisted sweater, mostly because yours truly is! Anyways, I have it all back on the needle and am continuing very peacefully now, secure in the knowledge that it is worth finishing (I can't believe I said that!). Not entirely sure what lesson has come out of all of this though..... If I can't trust my gauge and my eyes deceive me, what's a knitter to do??? Start to make friends with the tape measure, I guess, and really work at it being a long-term meaningful relationship!! ROFL!! Until next time,
oh gosh when i was reading that it was like a suspense novel, i thought you were going to say you had to rip it AHHHHHH thank goodness you are still on track! And take your comments to heart, make friends with that tape measure!!! LOL
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Let me assure you - I was in suspense doing it!! I thought I would die of agony when I started pulling it over my head for the first time! LOL!! I almost melted when it slipped on easily!!
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That is looking so lovely! And looking at your stitch patterns etc. I am thinking if it is just a tad snugger than you like, blogging it out a wee smitch will work just fine without shortening it.
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That would be "blocking it out".
Going to the corner now.
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Naw..... I think you were right the first time! Any knitting problem can be fixed with a little creative "blogging" - to stretch the truth!! (if not the fabric!) ROFL!!
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