FO: Sligo

At long last...Sligo:

You may remember when I started this one, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, way back in the spring. I fell in love with the pattern at first sight, and I had the perfect yarn, hand-dyed for me by the amazing stitchjones, just waiting for the right project. But alas, the path of true love did not run smoothly (is this a theme, or what?).

I struggled with the stitch pattern, which incorporates complex cable stitches along with (shudder) lace. I struggled with gauge issues that caused me to rip and reknit the back three times. I struggled with my ability to follow the pattern, causing me to rip out half the front. I struggled with the yarn, when I ran out and had to have Sharon attempt to match the earlier dye lot, a process that eventually required the sending of swatches up and down the West Coast to achieve something that would work. And then, in the final crowning inglorious moment, I realized I had sewn shut the side slits, and in attempting to reopen the seam, I cut the wrong thread and the lace hard-won lace began rapidly unraveling across the front. This last crushing blow was it for me. I stuffed the entire sweater, completed but for the edging on the side slits, behind the sofa. And there is has remained.

A few days ago, as I was working on a remake of another project that displeases me, I abruptly decided it was time to finish Sligo. Before I could reconsider, I pulled it out and set to work. In less than an hour, I had the side seams open, the lace repaired (or at least confined), and the side slit edging picked up and knitted. I wove in the last few ends and put the whole thing in a warm bath to soak. A gentle blocking, an overnight drying, and it is done. I can't believe I waited so long to address the problem, and how little trouble it was to fix. I'm going to look on this as a much-needed reminder that it is better to face one's demons than to hide them away behind the sofa.

The damage to the lace and the subseqent repair is barely visible. See?

If you look carefully, you can see on the lower left edge that the left side of the lace repeat is incomplete. This is the part that I mistakenly cut, and the best repair I could manage was to tie off and weave in the cut ends and then pick up and knit the edging. I figure no one will ever see it, so I can live with it.

The details:

Pattern: Medallion Pullover (Ravelry link) by Gayle Bunn from the Spring/Summer 2008 Vogue Knitting
Yarn: Stitchjones hand-dyed superwash worsted in the colorway "Sligo" (about 1500 yards)
Needles: Size 6 and 5 KnitPicks Options circulars
Mods: I made mine a couple of inches longer than the original, both in the body and the sleeves.
Thoughts: I can't say I really enjoyed knitting this one. The various problems I had with it made it more a matter of determination than pleasure. But I do like the design, and I do think I will wear it. Mostly, I'm just glad to have this albatross off my neck!

Comfort Knitting

I haven't attempted the repairs on Sligo yet. It remains in a sad heap on my dining room table, right where I left it after taking pictures of its wounds last night. Thanks to Melissa, I now have a plan for how to proceed--a much better plan than sobbing hysterically and throwing it into the fire, but not quite so good as flying her out here to fix it. So far, though, I haven't been up to the task of facing my ugly mistake.

Fortunately, I have some comfort knitting on the needles.

I've been needing a lot of comfort. (It's a good thing I'm a knitter and not a drinker, ya know?)

I have the body of the Gathered Pullover finished up to the point where the fronts get divided to start the v-neck, which is shortly after the completion of the lovely center cable. See?

I really love this cable. I'm already making plans for how I can use it again. Heck, I might even knit this whole sweater again. I have some hand-dyed wool that would make for a nice winter version. (Although I've never actually knit the same project twice, not even my own designs, so it's not all that likely.)

I'm still loving the yarn, too. It's great for warmer weather and easy on the hands. The yardage is terrific, too. I've only used four balls to this point! I think it will end up taking about eight balls, at $1.99 a ball. And technically, this yarn came from stash, since I bought it without a specific plan for its use and had it for more than a week before I decided what to do with it--my two requirements for "stash" versus "non-stash" projects. Oh, hush. It works for me.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I cut the wrong strand!

If I were one of my kids, this is the point at which I would come running in, crying, "Moooooommmm!"

I finished seaming Sligo, wove in the ends, and then remembered that there were supposed to be slits at the hip. So I pulled and tugged at the seam until I found the seaming yarn and carefully snipped it...and I was wrong!

What now? I have a big ol' hole growing the middle of the lace pattern and I still can't find the right strand to cut to pull out the seam! Mooooooommmmm!!!!!!

Seriously?

Halfway through the second sleeve, I've run out of yarn.

Score:
KG: 12
Knitter: 0

Keeping My Head Down

After my recent string of knitting disasters, I'm just keeping my head down. I finished a sock:

I'm hoping the Knitting Goddess will accept the kitchenering of the toe as my penance and let me off the hook already. But I doubt it. I had to cast on the second sock four times before I got it right. It's a simple k2, p2 rib, but I tried to cast on with a single circular, and apparently my brain doesn't work that way. I knitted two different mobius cuffs before I gave up and cast on with dpns, then knitted it onto a circular.

I've also accepted the fact that Sligo is not going to fit. I only came to this conclusion after I knitted several more repeats of the lace pattern, so I'm not feeling too bright about that either. I was heading for a 34" chest, and based on my swatch, it wasn't going to grow any with blocking. I was using size 5 needles and the knitting was pretty tight. I couldn't bring myself to actually rip out all that lace, so I pulled out another ball to swatch yet again. It turns out I can get perfect gauge on size 7s--exactly as the pattern recommends. Who'd have thought? And although the fabric is a little looser than I would like, it is acceptable, and probably the only way I'm going to get a sweater that fits. I've cast on (for the third time) and I'm quietly working away, hoping to escape any more unwanted attention from the KG.

Maybe one of you could...oh, I don't know...start knitting without swatching, or buy only exactly as much discontinued yarn as the pattern calls for, or loudly proclaim your disdain for the KG and distract her for me for just a little while. Please?

In Which the KG Takes Her Revenge. Again.

Two hours. That's how long it took me to produce this swatch.

Two hours, and three needle sizes, and a flip chart for the lace pattern. It's not as easy as it looks. Not only is this a "true" lace, in that every row is a pattern row--no resting on the wrong side--but it also incorporates an "eight stitch cable" that requires not one but two cable needles to execute. You have to slip one stitch to the front on one needle, slip six stitches to the back on another needle, knit one, then work the six back stitches in a knit and purl pattern, then finally knit the first stitch from the first cable needle. If you didn't quite get that, imagine my struggles to figure out how to execute it without using any cable needles. I did, eventually. It requires some interesting acrobatics that leave my wrists a bit sore, but it beats trying to hang onto all those different cable needles.

Imagine, then, how long it took to produce this:

Now double that, because I knitted it twice. Not for fun, you understand. In all that swatching (and I even washed my swatches and measured them after blocking), I came to the conclusion that I liked the yarn best knitted at a somewhat smaller gauge than the pattern called for. After a bit of quality time with my calculator, I decided that I could use my gauge and just knit one size up and end up with the right size. So I cast on for the L/XL and worked about 25 rows. 25 140-stitch rows. Of lace.

Now I'll admit that it never really looked right. From the first row, I was questioning the sizing. It looked big. But I checked the numbers and everything worked out. So I kept knitting. It continued to look big. I checked the numbers again. I checked my gauge. I was a little off--maybe one stitch over four inches. But with a gauge of 26-28 stitches to four inches, this didn't seem terribly important. By the time I was nearing the end of the first lace repeat, though, there was no denying that this thing was going to be huge. I stopped and measured again. And now I was getting the original gauge specified in the pattern, and was in fact knitting a 42.5" chest for my 35" bust. There was nothing to do but rip it all out.

I bit the bullet and ripped. Then I turned on American Idol and cast on again, this time using the S/M pattern. By the time Simon was slinging his final insult, I was feeling pretty good about my progress. I did notice that some of my stitches were not as tight as they should be and made a conscious effort to tighten things up a bit.

Which may be why, when I pulled it out again today, it looked a little...small. Yes indeed. I am now knitting a size XS. Instead of a 37.5" chest, I am knitting a 34.5" chest. I am a little miffed. I'm not a slave to gauge. I see it as a suggestion rather than an absolute. I don't worry too much about my knits growing or stretching a bit, because that is the nature of knitting. It stretches. It grows. It changes when exposed to water or steam or normal wear. So it doesn't matter all that much to me if I'm off by half a stitch over four inches or a couple inches in the finished product, which is why I generally don't swatch as...rigorously...as some knitters do. But this time I did swatch rigorously. I swatched and I washed and I blocked and I calculated, and the end result is just as screwed up as it could possibly be had I thrown caution to the wind and just started knitting.

So the obvious dilemma is this: I have now knitted this sweater in both the S/M and L/XL sizes, and there was eight inches difference between the two with the two entirely different gauges I seem to have gotten with the same yarn and same needles. So what do I do? Keep working on the current version and trust in the magic of blocking? Rip and re-knit the larger size, even though I know it will probably end up being way too big? Rip the thing and pretend I never saw this pattern? Throw myself on the mercy of the Knitting Goddess, who is clearly not done with me yet, and beg her forgiveness for ever daring to cast on in the first place? After the endless labor of Death By Cables and the unfinished disaster of the Retro Ribby Shrug, I could really use a win here. What do you think?

Cheating

It's come to this. As if cheating on Death By Cables with the Retro Ribby Shrug weren't bad enough...now I'm cheating on the RRS with Sligo. Shameless, that's what I am. A project hussy.

The RRS is done. At least, the knitting part is done. It has a back, two fronts, and two sleeves, just waiting to be blocked and sewn together.

Usually, I'm pretty gung-ho about finishing. I don't like the sewing (if I wanted to sew, I'd, you know, sew), but I generally hop right to it once the knitting is done, because--let's face it--you can't really walk around with the individual pieces pinned to your shirt and call it a sweater. (Although some of us may have been tempted to try it.)

But even though the RRS was an exciting fling, and a very quick knit, the thrill is gone, and I'm seeing it in the harsh light of day with its curlers and its house coat, and I'm getting that wandering urge. I'm having a hard time resisting the siren's song of Sligo (so green...so green...). And Death? I've sent Death on a long vacation while I reconsider the relationship . I'm going with Bea's reasoning: "you have to look at your WIPs in relation to the season, WIPs for fall and winter 'stay' in that season, when spring comes, you start over at 0." Have you ever heard such a piece of knitterly brilliance in your life? Even the Knitting Goddess can't possibly argue with that reasoning!

Falling Down

I was doing really well with my vow to finish Death By Cables before casting on anything new. I only made one bag and one baby blanket and started one pair of socks and the shrug part of the Retro Ribby Twinset. And none of those count, as I've explained repeatedly.

But I'm going down now, and I'm going down hard.

It's totally not my fault. The new Vogue Knitting came. This did not seem to pose a problem, since, as usual, I didn't like any of the designs.

And then I found this:

I like this. I like it a lot. I like it so much that it has jumped to the very front of the queue. Death By Cables? Who needs a cabled wool sweater in San Diego in April? So I immediately started shopping for yarn. And then I remembered this:

This is the gorgeous, hand-dyed, superwash merino from Sharon's shop, in the Sligo colorway (she just posted some BFL in this same colorway, and it's totally different and absolutely lovely). I love this yarn. It's soft and smooth and lightly variegated and it's green, which aside from being possibly my new favorite color is also the Project Spectrum color for April. I've just been waiting to cast it on until Death was finished. But, you know, if I use yarn from stash...

...it doesn't really count as a new project.