Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Quick Fix (Not)

In a miraculous turn (aka Kristin worked her ass off), I have resolved my sweater errors. Sure, I'm 70 rows back (if you include the flat section I had to rip out before I ripped out the 50 of 72 rows of the body, knit in the round). Yeah, my tension's, um, different. But I used my brain and I came up with a solution that didn't involve going back to the beginning.

We'll see how the finished, blocked sweater fits with that extra yarn eased in. It's taken hours to rug-hook the extra ease into the full width of the bodice. It would have been more efficient to just rip it back altogether. But that wouldn't have been problem-solving as much as a project abandonment. I would not have started again from scratch, that I know about myself. I have fairly limited knitting capability these days and this sweater is, frankly, boring. Now I'm going to knit super tight for a couple of inches, in the hopes that I can ease the yarn from the looser part of the bodice up into that tighter part. Also, I sense that the slack from the looser stitches will migrate somewhat independently - my springy wool is the sort of yarn that cooperates that way. And then, when I block it, submersion in water should allow the fibres to relax and, hopefully, the tension will even out completely.

The key was taking the time to consider my options (including some trial and error) followed by documenting my work plan and instructions to take me from knitting horror to knitting fixed. In case you're curious, I've uploaded the document here (updated with sharable link). Yeah, it's crazy, but I find if I "talk to myself in writing", I can figure out just about anything.

PS: Here's hoping we hear no more of this project till there's a pretty finished photo of it to share.

Next up - a trio of bra posts. I may have quashed the black bra drought.

2 comments:

  1. I have no idea how to sew, I looked at those measurements you pointed out but I don't understand them at all. I can sew a button on though:)

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