What a difference a year makes
I am currently knitting Glampyre's Easy V Neck Raglan - my first effort at a top down sweater. I'm knitting it in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, which is a dream to knit.
The pattern is pretty easy to follow, and I knit the body without any mishaps. Tried it on and thought it was a bit figure hugging (I'd been imagining a "sloppy joe" kind of sweater), but fine. I'm knitting the size 32"-34".
Then I started on the first sleeve. My 16" circular was too long to knit it on circs, so I've been knitting it on DPNs. Now, whilst I love knitting socks on my dinky little 2.5mm bamboo DPNs I find my 20cm long 5mm DPNs really annoying to knit with. I don't know why, it just seems like the needles all get in the way. So far I've been unable to find any 5mm DPNs shorter than 20cm.
Anyway, last night I got to the end of the decreases and tried it on to check the sleeve length. The sleeves were just a tiny bit too tight. Damn. I think it's maybe because I'm knitting much tighter on the DPNs. Whatever, I figured even with blocking the sleeves would still be too tight.
So, I decided the only thing was to frog the whole thing, and start again knitting the next size up. That should a) make it more of the sloppy joe I'd originally planned, and b) hopefully solve the sleeve problem, particularly if I'm also aware of what knitting with the DPNs is doing to my tension, and try and loosen up a bit.
Twenty minutes later and the whole thing was frogged back into balls (the Alpaca Silk frogs really easily, thank goodness).
Eddie said to me "Aren't you really upset you've had to undo all that work?". I thought about it and said, "No. It took me 9 days to get this far. If I carry on as it is, I'll never wear it because I won't be happy with it. I'd rather undo 9 days work, get it right and get years of wear out of it, than finish it and never wear it."
A year ago, as an extremely novice knitter I'd have been devastated. So much so, I probably wouldn't have even frogged it - I would have just thrown it in the bag and chalked it up as just another disaster.
I think I'm making progress.....
The pattern is pretty easy to follow, and I knit the body without any mishaps. Tried it on and thought it was a bit figure hugging (I'd been imagining a "sloppy joe" kind of sweater), but fine. I'm knitting the size 32"-34".
Then I started on the first sleeve. My 16" circular was too long to knit it on circs, so I've been knitting it on DPNs. Now, whilst I love knitting socks on my dinky little 2.5mm bamboo DPNs I find my 20cm long 5mm DPNs really annoying to knit with. I don't know why, it just seems like the needles all get in the way. So far I've been unable to find any 5mm DPNs shorter than 20cm.
Anyway, last night I got to the end of the decreases and tried it on to check the sleeve length. The sleeves were just a tiny bit too tight. Damn. I think it's maybe because I'm knitting much tighter on the DPNs. Whatever, I figured even with blocking the sleeves would still be too tight.
So, I decided the only thing was to frog the whole thing, and start again knitting the next size up. That should a) make it more of the sloppy joe I'd originally planned, and b) hopefully solve the sleeve problem, particularly if I'm also aware of what knitting with the DPNs is doing to my tension, and try and loosen up a bit.
Twenty minutes later and the whole thing was frogged back into balls (the Alpaca Silk frogs really easily, thank goodness).
Eddie said to me "Aren't you really upset you've had to undo all that work?". I thought about it and said, "No. It took me 9 days to get this far. If I carry on as it is, I'll never wear it because I won't be happy with it. I'd rather undo 9 days work, get it right and get years of wear out of it, than finish it and never wear it."
A year ago, as an extremely novice knitter I'd have been devastated. So much so, I probably wouldn't have even frogged it - I would have just thrown it in the bag and chalked it up as just another disaster.
I think I'm making progress.....
posted by Carolyn at 4:54 pm
3 Comments:
I salute you! unraveling all that work and getting back on that...erm... horse (if you see what I mean)
Yes progress indeed. I couldn't find any short dpns for you athough I see Highland Annie has - well done that lass! I was going to suggest investing in some short addi circs - I've used mine much more than I thought I would - Get Knitted are stocking a good range of them. They would no doubt be mighty slippy when combined with alpaca silk though!
What about 12" circs? I have those long DPNs feels like your going to poke an eye sometimes....I can't wait to see you finished sweater I bet it'll be beautiful! Never tried Alpaca Silk sounds sinful ;o)
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