This will be a weekend for much ripping. Measuring, self-recriminations, re-measuring, perhaps some creative block, and then ripping. Not just one, but two projects.
Glacier, my beautiful cabled sweater, has a beautiful back. But it is too long. Instead of hitting above my hips it is miniskirt length. Why did this happen? Because the yarn is lovely and thick … and heavy. So my gauge swatch under predicted growth in length. I should have seen this one coming. I put the project in time out when I came to this realization so I could CALM down and breath before ripping back (this should be fun with alternating skeins to wind and splice) to before the shaping starts and taking out a repeat or two.
This is a new project, my Moto Vest. It's a clever construction, essentially you knit a big thick scarf before picking up stitches in the middle to knit the back. The pattern is more of a recipe than a pattern. At a glance, my shawl collar isn't long enough (it will eventually get connected to the back) and my back isn't wide enough. I'm knitting with Plucky Bulky, a yarn that is notorious for growth with wet blocking, so I will wet block and remeasure. But I think here as well, I'm headed for the knitting frog pond. My current plan is to lengthen the shawl collar, rip out the back and knit it almost twice as wide, and add some cable detailing on the back for a bit of light shaping at the waist.
Fortunately for both of these projects, I'm still in love with them and am deeply committed to finishing them. Some day.
I'm off to sulk. Hope you are having a better knitting week than I am!
