When are you expert?

This is the saga of the ever changing sweater. Here is the information: Pattern: Leavened Raglan from IK Fall '07 (what a great issue!) Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky in Silver Silver, Needles: 17 US.

First, I knit the pieces and all was good. Then I washed and blocked the pieces. The sleeves seemed to grow, but I blocked them to measurements. After I seamed everything up, this is what I got...

See the arms? How freakishly long the are? In fact, the stitch marker is where the arms should have been. We are, like, 8 inches too long! Gah!

This is how the sweater makes me feel...

Like a freakin' Gorilla. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh...

I have read, in that annoyingly casual tone that expert knitters often adopt, that you can just snip off the offending rows, pick up the live stitches and knit a new sleeve cuff. ARE YOU INSANE???!!! Won't the sleeve, I don't know, disintegrated instantly into a pile of grey kinky wool mess?

Apparently not. I tried it out on the swatch I had knit and darn it all if it not only worked, but now I could see the reason for the casual tone. It really is that easy. So, here's me about to snip off the offending rows...


See how I placed a smaller needle into the stitches just below the row I am snipping? Thank God mohair sticks to itself like a super strength magnet. I still can't get the hang of consistently finding the right stitch to catch up. Anyway, place the needle into the row below and snip the stitch. I choose to unravel the row stitch by stitch. The sometimes annoying experts just snip the whole row. You now have a row of live stitches on the small needle and the offending part just falls away. Magic!

Newly altered sweater and me, the now annoyingly casual expert knitter, looking quite smug.

***Epilogue***

Niece was at my house for dinner and a game of Nertz (some call it Demon. Never tried it? Oh, we are talking good times, people). She saw the un-seemed sweater and a picture from IK and said, "oh, I would totally wear something like this". Say no more, niece!!! You can use a humongous wooly sweater in Boston way more than I can in So. Cal!

Here is Happy Niece.

She got this today for her 21st B-Day. Isn't it cool? But.... do you see what I see? Is her right sleeve shorter than the left?......... GAH!!!!!!!!!

I take back the expert knitter comment. I sooooo take it back. ;-)

Casting On for the New Year

We couldn't start the new year without a project on the needles, now could we?

Right after the last gift was wrapped I cast on for the long anticipated Oblique by Veronik. This is the lovely Superwash Cascade 220 that was waiting to be something else. I love this yarn. It is the perfect neutral taupe-ish brown that will go with everything. And, baby, if this sucker takes as long as I think it will, I want to wear the living daylights out of it.

Here is my progress after 5 days of vacation knitting. VACATION knitting folks. What progress shall be made after I return to my normal working life? However, she is lovely, no? I don't have a name for her yet. Super- slouchy- going -to -live- in -this- "jin-jin" (chinese for baby blankee) -ultimate- comfort -sweater is just too difficult for a name. Did Linus have a name for his blanket? Maybe I will name her Linus.


Meanwhile, I had to cast on for something with more instant gratification! Here we are with iwriteplay's Leavened Raglan from Interweave Knits Fall '07. Her version was so lovely and the yarn was such a good deal (Lamb's Pride Bulky in Silver silver from the DBNY). It's so funny how a project will look dreadful in one color and fantastic in another.


Ok, here's a shot of the progress so far. We had to go all the way up to a 17 needle to get gauge. I'm pretty concerned that my swatch is a lying piece of &*(%*, since I never have to go up 2 sizes on a given project, but so far, so good. At least, until you look closely...


Can you see it? A mistake!!! (**GASP**) Yep, I had already frogged 7 rows to get rid of another mistake when I realized, **doh** if you decrease in a lace pattern, you have to adjust the next row or the whole dogged thing will be off. As I progress in my knitterly skills, I am also getting better at letting go of perfection. If it was perfect, it might as well be $19.95 at Old Navy - right?

Well, the back is identical to the front, so you can bet this guy is now designated the back. By the time I finish we might have some reasonable January weather again.