Monday, October 13, 2008

I love free time!

Really! Not working on Saturday or Sunday is fabulous! And you know what happens when I don't have to work? I get to knit... yeah!!

So instead of short choppy sleeves on my cable luxe tunic, as previously promised, I get to show you a whole sleeve!


Don't you love how when I stand sideways like that you almost can't tell I still have one more sleeve to go?


Oops.. yep, not quite done [hehehe].

It's taken me awhile to get back to the sleeves on this little one (ok... not so little, actually a pretty big project). I took it to knitty group two weeks ago and again last week and that seems to have been the motivator I needed to keep going (well that and that amazing thing of unscheduled hours in the day). Thursday night at group, I pulled the one sleeve I was working on onto my arm and, wow, I realized I was almost half way done! OK... maybe this won't be a never ending sleeve after all, I though. Several dedicated hours later... yeah ... one sleeve done!


Here's an up close shot of the body. Now if you compare the body to the sleeve (or that picture to the one above or below) you might notice something unusual. The "stripe" between the cables looks different.

When I started this pattern, I was never able to see an up-close photo of the sweater. Compelled to knit it, I nevertheless plunged on. The stripe is made by slipping a stitch every other row and knitting it on the remaining rows. Of course the instructions never said whether you slip as if to knit, as if to purl, with yarn in front, or in back. These little things bother me. I picked a way and off I went with the pattern resulting in the stripe you see in the body above.

When I started the sleeve, I thought I did the slipping the same way, but apparently not. What I did was slip as if to knit with the yarn in back. I realized that this was the way that was probably intended. I struggled with whether I should continue in this "right" prettier way, or continue the sleeves in the old way (to match the body). After trial and error, I could not figure out how to replicate the old look (ok.. I didn't try that hard...but I did try a few times). I decided, who cares, and knit on with the prettier look.

After finishing the first sleeve this weekend and realizing that I really DO like this sweater, I decided maybe I needed to do something with the body to be a bit matchy.

Laddering up the sweater though? Was I ready for this frightening endeavor. Seems almost worse than steeking... no sewing there to hold the sweater together. I DO like this sweater though. I plunged ahead, starting on the back, figuring I only had to do a couple stripes on front and back to be good enough.

And you know what ... it was easy!


Here's the last stripe right before it was fixed. You can see that the laddered stripes to the left and right of the old version aren't quite as tight as they would have been if done correctly from the start, but I figure I can fix that with a good bath.

Joy... nice stripes all around the body and one sleeve done. Now I just need a few more dedicated hours for that other sleeve! Cold weather's coming and I want to wear this sweater!

5 comments:

turtlegirl76 said...

You're so close! It's looking awesome. And you know what? I like your "mistake" stripe better than how it was originally written. It's got a seed stitchy feeling to it. But good for you for having the balls to drop down that stitch all the way and fix it!

Anonymous said...

It's looking incredible! When I saw your first picture, I totally thought you were finished :)

I love how great it feels when you figure out how to fix a mistake. I don't know, it's just sort of empowering, I guess!

Lola and Ava said...

That's a great looking sweater! I bought the pattern, but my girls talked me out of it since the cables were a little too heavy for me. somehow on you, though, they look divine!

amanda said...

it looks great!! at first I thought it was done :)

Hilary said...

Nice job! I often use the ladder trick to fix mistakes, but my attempts don't always turn out so well... :)

The sweater is absolutely amazing. And you're almost there!!