Sunday, June 22, 2008

I've Been in a Terrible Knitting Accident

This incident is something I have to blog about, if only to get over the sick feeling I get in my stomach every time I think about it.

I have been knitting, on and off, for more than 35 years. Don't you think that should mean something? And yet, during the last seven months of really concentrated knitting that I've been doing, I seem to make more rookie mistakes than someone who's been knitting for less than a year. Sigh.

So, about my terrible knitting accident. I have always admired the Sunrise Circle Jacket featured in Interweave Knits (scroll down the linked page a bit to see the pattern). Not wanting to buy the pattern, I put the jacket in my Ravelry queue and moved on to find great free patterns. I found enough patterns to give most of the people on my list some kind of handmade Christmas present. Awesome.

And then one day, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Knitting Daily advising me that the Sunrise Circle Jacket and several other patterns were going to be offered for a free download for 1 month. I immediately downloaded the patterns and put them in my home computer pattern archive. From that moment onward, it was like I could hear the jacket calling to me. I would imagine it in different colors and yarns before falling asleep each night. I looked up every single project on Ravelry to see what other people used. I found myself looking at yarn with that project in mind every time I went yarn shopping. After about a month of fantasizing about the jacket, I broke down and bought some beautiful tone-on-tone variegated yarn in cranberry red.

I next spent three days measuring myself and working out how to alter the pattern to fit my measurements. I rewrote the sleeve/front pattern to make a wider upper sleeve, which required a calculator and math (ugh). I ordered two skeins of backup yarn just in case I had underestimated the yarn requirements. I checked and rechecked my gauge, and then I cast it on.

Even though the pattern is primarily straight stockinette stitch, I had a lovely time knitting. The sleeve went so fast it practically knit itself! My rewritten increases changed the width of the upper sleeve perfectly. There was only one problem. I saw that if I continued with the full number of increases, the sleeve was going to turn out much longer than the pattern called for. Since the width was already looking fine, I cut out the last two planned increases. In all, I modified the sleeve width by only 6 stitches in width (about an inch and a half).

And then I got into a terrible knitting accident. The sleeve measured exactly what the pattern called for when I stopped the increases. When I held it up to my arm, it seemed a little short. My arms are longer than average, so I thought "I'll just add two and a half inches in length to make the sleeves nice and long."

Once I added to the sleeve length, I started on the circular front. It, too, was a lot of fun to knit and I enjoyed myself. I had, by that time, read some of the blog entries about the pattern and picked up some good tips to fit the pattern even better. Many entries mentioned that the sleeves were too long.

I had been noticing the extreme length of my sleeve with growing trepidation for some time. The yarn I'm using is part mohair, so I thought "The mohair is stretching the piece a bit -- it will shorten up when I wash it and block it." I found myself frantically measuring the piece against my arm every two rows or so. I tried holding the work in my lap so the sleeve couldn't "grow" anymore, but the sleeve got longer anyway.

Last Monday, I took it out to knit the final rows before starting on the front edge hem. The sleeve was gargantuan. I laid out my favorite sweater on the floor and then forced myself to lay down the sweater sleeve/front on top of it for comparison. I literally fell down on my knees when I saw the two together. The sleeve of my jacket is at least 6 inches longer than the sleeve of my favorite sweater. AT LEAST. I may be in denial and unable to truly see how much longer it really is, but I know for sure it is at least 6 inches. Were I to wear this jacket as knit, the sleeve would hang down completely covering my hand and then some! It reminded me of something a Dr. Seuss character would wear. When I held the sleeve up to my leg, I realized it could double as a capri pant leg.

I took it to knitting night and showed it around. Nobody told me I was imagining things as I secretly hoped. Everyone was simultaneously amused and horrified. I put the monstrosity into the bottom of my knitting bag and cast on something else to work on while I figure out what to do.

I've talked it over with other knitters. I've looked on the blogs and other resources. I am going to have to put in a needle to hold the live stitches, CUT a stitch in the sleeve and RIP OFF a good 6.5 inches. Then I'll just knit the 11 rows required to make the fold and the hem. Easy, no?

For some reason, the thought just makes me feel awful. I'm getting over it, though. I'm ready to take out the jacket and try to finish off the left sleeve/front tonight so I can cast on for the other side. I'm not going to add any length this time, though.

If I can make myself do it, I will post a picture of the gargantuan sleeve. Until that time, here is a great picture of the beautiful (and normal sized) jacket front. Pretty, no?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least it's a fixable mistake, right? Could be worse - and it's stuff like this that's the reason I don't do many sweaters. I'm severely Gauge-Challenged. Doesn't matter how many swatches I make, doesn't matter how I measure them, it never works right in the end. I'm trying to do a sweater from Fitted Knits and swatched about 5 times. Finally re-did the math to match my gauge and cast on. 8 or so inches in, I realized I was suddenly getting gauge. Sigh. I was able to add extra stitches and go back to pattern, but still don't know how it's going to fit when it's done. - Michelle

Unknown said...

Yes, it could definitely be worse. I just hate finding out that no matter how carefully I prepare for a big project like this, I can still suck at getting it right!