doesn't it look pretty? (ignore my scary bathroom - we rent, and therefore have no inclination to paint it) . Here's a close up, so you can actually see what the yarn looks like...
(no, I didn't get to leave it there... the boys were out last night, so I had free reign to hang the wool in the bathroom... I had to move it to the basement once they came home and the yarn stopped dripping so profusely) I never liked this sweater, from the moment I finished sewing it up and tried it on. Usually when this happens with a project, I stash the sweater in a bag or in my stash box, and forget all about it until some random day that I decide to frog it, and use the yarn for something else. But this sweater has always haunted me - every time I start a new sweater, I remember this one, sitting in the bottom of the stash box, totally unwearable and therefore a very expensive pile of crap... Maybe now that its simply part of the stash, one that which already has a new project picked out for it (I'm excited), it will stop haunting me and placing curses over the creation of all my other sweaters!"A curse?" you ask? "Is that possible?"
Yes, it certainly is! I have determined that all my sweater knitting (sweaters for myself, at least) is entirely cursed. Just take a look at this one, for example...
Last spring, as you probably remember, I started making the Jemima sweater by Anna Bell. Other projects kept getting in the way of it, so I didn't finish knitting it till sometime in the summer. And then all the pieces just sat in my knitting basket, waiting to be sewn together. I blocked all the pieces while I was blocking Steven's blanket in September. Then I put it all away, and left it in the basket again. So yesterday, I decided I'd re-block the pieces (they'd become a little wrinkled), and make the sweater in time for my departure to England...
Does this sleeve look odd to you? A little loooooong maybe? Um, yeah. That piece of paper in the photo (placed there for scale) is a piece of A4 paper, which, for my North American friends, is actually about an inch or so longer than our letter sized paper... Which means that the bit of sleeve between the cuff and the sleeve cap - which is supposed to be 19 inches - has somehow become about 24 inches! and this is the SHORTER of the two sleeves! (insert scream of agony here)This is disaster is still making me scream today. When I started this project (with the back piece, like most sweaters), my gauge was too tight, so I used a larger needle. Apparently, by the time I got round to the sleeves, my knitting had relaxed, so I was actually knitting at a larger gauge. Add to that the obvious growth of the yarn caused by washing it, and you end up with this disaster... (I remeasured the gauge, and its at about 16 stitches per 4 inches, rather than the intended 18 stitches. AAAAHHHHHH!)
So guess what's next on my frog pond list! Mind you this yarn will not be remade into the Jemima sweater. Having seen Helen's version, I much prefer her use of a more sturdy yarn... this one drapes too much for me - although that propably is due to my TOO LOOSE gauge. Regardless, I think I'll use this yarn to venture into the wide world of the self-designed top-down raglan sweater, much inspired by this one by Ysolda. Of course when I start that sweater, I will make a proper gauge swatch and will actually wash and block it before I measure my gauge!
but now I'm off to go clean the house, and try to forget that this whole thing ever happened...
ps: I just downloaded some episodes of a new (to me) podcast, It's a purl, man (I'll tell you how I like it another day). iTunes has marked this podcast as "explicit" - that kills me! Since when does knitting, the supposed pastime of no one but little old ladies, garner an explicit rating on iTunes! (okay, I get that its probably just due to an abundance of swearing in the podcast, but still, you gotta admit that its funny!)
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