Knowing When to Fold 'em

The Light Rose sweater is no more. I was unraveling it when I got all of these strands of yarn and couldn't figure out why. I checked the sketch and yup, was undoing it in the direction it had been done. Except I wasn't. After I turned the sketch around a few times, I realized that I was trying to undo it in the opposite way that I should have been. Doh.

Yes, it was made across, cuff to cuff. I was thinking the right front was the last part knitted. Doh. Had I continued and begun to unravel it from the right cuff up--the correct way--I would have undone more than 3/4 of the sweater.

It was doomed from the start. My yarn wasn't quite to gauge so I used larger sized needles. Then I discovered that I knitted with a looser tension when working on the part with the circular needles. I wound up using four different sized needles. At the same time I was trying to knit to two sizes, one for where I was narrower and one for where I wasn't.

There is no sense of giving up, frustration, or similar. It's just that I have a lot of sweaters in my queue, including some UFOs, and limited time in which to do those and all my other crafts projects. There is only so much time left in which to do these things (getting old you know.)

You gotta know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em. It was time to fold 'em.

Measure, measure, measure

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/multi-directional-striped-cardigan

For those of you asking to see the cardigan I'm doing in Light Rose--and you know who you are--there will be a wait. Why? Because I didn't heed my own advice of measure, measure, measure.

I was knitting the front bands when I realized that the two upper front portions weren't the same length! How in the world did that happen? This sweater is knitted from the left cuff over to the right cuff (basically), so the upper right front is the last knitted for that portion. Usually I do compare and don't know why I didn't this time. For some reason I was knitting more loosely than I normally do; usually, I tend to knit more tightly as I progress.

There might have been a way to knit the band and ease in the right side but it probably would be obvious, plus I would know that it was not right.

The bottom portion is done by "picking up stitches" and knitting them to the upper portion. For you non-knitters that means adding stitches to already worked stitches rather than knitting a section separately and seaming the two together. Well, guess what? All these years of knitting and I had never done that before. I thought I was following the sketches correctly, but, nope, I wasn't and the results weren't too good.

So, with the two front lengths not being even and the not-so-good job of picking up stitches, I undid the bottom portion (it was also the only way to undo the upper portion). Sigh. And I was so close to being finished with only the front bands and collar to do.


I love the blue they used for that sweater, but mine is a solid Light Rose and not as pretty.

Now regarding the other sweater (in chocolate, wheat, and soft taupe, mentioned in my previous entry): had to undo what I had knitted on that one. The directions sounded so simple and I had done top-down raglans before. Yes, but only cardigans, not pullovers. I will be starting that one over.

I probably have no business knitting as I'm not very good at it. (I'm better at crocheting, but I like the look of a knitted sweater over a crocheted one)---plus, I really enjoy knitting.

Knitting Sweaters

Knowing that I need to thin out my yarn stash, I've been doing some knitting. I'm more of a crocheter so my knitting won't win any awards. A lot of my stash is just one or two of the same yarns, but I have some yarns which are enough for sweaters.

I'm currently working on a sweater--and even remembered to take progress pics--with yarn I bought at a yard sale. It is Caron Gold Sayelle in Light Rose.

It is almost summer, so why am I making sweaters? Because 1) I need to use some of this collection of yarn, 2) they will be ready for the cooler weather when it comes (actually it's been on the cool side for this time of year), and, most importantly 3) because I am in the mood to knit sweaters. This mood doesn't come that often and I need to take advantage of it.

The Caron yarn in the pic was a gift for XMas 2009 and I forgot I had it. It is Simply Soft, and it is. The person who gave it to me is not a knitter so didn't know how much to get. Well, she got plenty: 2 skeins each of 3 colors and each skein is 5 oz. of knitted worsted weight.

It would have been so much easier to find a pattern if there was a "main color" as opposed to an equal amount of each color. I could just find a pattern I like and work the colors, estimating where I would run short of a particular color, but this may not be fail proof.

I decided to do a top down raglan pullover. This way I won't have to worry about a color shortage: if I'm getting close to the end, I could just make the sweater and/or the sleeves shorter.

That's the plan anyway.