I finished the sweater last night and it is blocked on top of my drier (the only place kid and laundry free, latter surprisingly) and I should have a picture posted soon. It fits, (yay!!!) Hubby thinks it's cute and very me, and it's finished in time for our 70-something degree weather so I will have to pack it away until next year. Ahh, the way knitting goes sometimes... Actually, this summer I plan on working on at least 2 different sweaters to get ready for next winter. I'm not scared of seaming anymore, or at least not as much as I was, and I can't wait to try the pattern with all the cables and my lovely cotton yarn I saved up for.
But anyway, needless to say, I did not finish the current sweater last week like I thought but it was for a good cause. My brain was about to explode and Harriet (the name of my knitting muse, by the way, if anyone forgot) did not say anything; it was the Voice of Reason and it said "You work too hard for your own good. Stop it." And I stopped. This weekend I knitted what I could, while keeping myself duct-taped together, and Monday I didn't knit at all. Then yesterday I was feeling a little better and somewhere in the midst of kids playing and blowing kisses through the front window to people who pass the house I finished. I... FINISHED. I had even knitted the body a little longer than the pattern called for. It was like the gentle breath of air that was God. I spent our "Biggest Loser" evening finishing it and tried it on. So cute. Slightly, slightly itchy due to the wool, but not unwearable. I think I'm going to stick with cotton, though.
My brain is feeling better, even though my memory and drives haven't come back. I'm on a detox system and I think it's working. I woke up a little clearer this morning but I'm trying to still take it easy and not overdo it.
Next, a Noro hat and finally writing the pattern for that hat for Lovely Aide. Good luck to me. I also wrote the cutest idea for a picture to knit on a washcloth (this was during that convention a few weeks ago). I might try it soon. I can't wait to see how it turn out! I even found my graph paper (while organizing all my patterns) so I can plan it officially!
And I said I was going to take it easy...
1 comment:
Congrats on finishing the sweater! I'd love to see a picture of it!
And now, a public service announcement: let the buyer of the book _Fitted Knits_ beware! My mom admired a sweater in that book, and I had planned to make it for her as a gift. I bought the yarn and started in. Got 2.5 rows into it, and couldn't figure out why the count wasn't working out. Counted. Recounted. Was feeling like the state of Florida in the 2000 elections, and was getting nowhere. Felt like an idiot.
Then I went online and searched for "Fitted Knits errata." I am not an idiot! The author of the book has posted more than 2 pages of errata, but that doesn't even begin to address the trouble. There are entire online support groups for this book! People keep on buying it and knitting from it because the patterns are very stylish. But those who succeed in making the sweaters must rely on their own instincts, experience, and modifications to make it all work.
Screw that. Maybe in the future, when I've knitted a lot more garments, I'll return to this book with sufficient skill to navigate around all the landmines. I resent the publisher's cavalier approach in producing a book so riddled with errors.
But maybe it's best that I didn't make that sweater. The yarn shop ladies swore up and down that the pattern just wouldn't work with anything except wool, because the yarn needed to be bulky, which meant that cotton would sag and bamboo would drape, but wool would have "memory." But the sweater is short-sleeved, and my heat-intolerant mom lives in a climate that's hot and humid for most of the year. (I later saw that people who knitted the sweater successfully used lighter-weight yarn. Yet another modification!)
Meanwhile, I plan to return most of the yarn to the shop, but I still want to make a gift for my mom. I've ordered a pattern and some lovely cotton yarn from White Lies Designs, the site where I found a reliable, well-written pattern for a fitted tank top. If the next pattern turns out just as well and fits my mom, I will feel that I've struck gold.
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