So the pattern says "The cardigan is a tighter fit...If you wish a looser fit you will want to knit a larger size to ensure the desired fit." If there's one thing I don't want to do, it's spend a bunch of hours knitting a sweater that's too flippin' small. So I took my measurements and went one size up from that.
I guess I've also lost 15 or 20 pounds since I first began this sweater. Anyway, it was a couple years ago that I spent all the driving time on our vacation knitting this up. I was using the hilariously large needles required to get the suggested gauge. I hated how loose and floppy the fabric was, but by the time I could tell I hated it, I had knit too much to rip it out. Ha ha! The above picture shows how much I knit before I realized there was no way I could use this garment if I finished it in this size. It was GIGANTIC. I measured it before I 86-ed it, and it measure something like 54 inches around. I bit large...
Jules, Eric, and I spent about an hour ripping and ripping the yarn, trying to separate the two separate strands of very fine-weight yarn without breaking them, and then rewinding it all. It was a stinkin' mess. It felt strangely satisfying to rip out all that work. I didn't have any regrets. What I did have was two extra balls of $8/ball yarn...
The pattern calls for six balls for the size I WAS knitting, but only four balls for the size I started knitting. Oh well; there's a lovely silk and wool scarf, socks, or hat in my future, I guess. So I heard about an event called the Ravelympics a couple years ago. The knitting/fiber online community Ravelry has people who pick a project and knit the whole dang thing while sitting and watching the Olympics. This is right up my alley. I need a strong motivation to finish things, instead of setting them aside to start something new; I watch the Olympics almost religiously; and I needed to get this sweater finished, since this is The Summer of Finishing Projects. The Trifecta!
Except I didn't have this undone and rewound by the opening ceremonies. Instead I began and finished another project, a cardigan for Jules' American Girl doll, Julie Albright. It's a cute little sweater, if a bit boxy. That was finished by Tuesday of the first week of Olympics. Thursday of that week, I had everything ready and started reknitting Barb Wire, with smaller needles and in the smallest size. It turns out I hate lace knitting. Glancing every two seconds at the chart, always worrying that I'd made a tiny mistake that would doom all the rest of my work, and knowing that it can't be washed without a bunch of TLC. Bleeeaahh.
BUT back to the project: I had a lot of time to work on it in the back seat as my brother, sister, father, and I drove to Utah for a weekend. I worked on it all week watching track and field events. I was going to make a big push and get the dang thing finished on Sunday after church. And then I discovered that I was Too Sleepy to Knit Anything. I was almost too sleepy to watch the Closing Ceremonies. I did not get the sweater finished. I stalled out on the shoulders/sleeves, the most arduous part, because it has the most stitches - 200something per row.
Bump this, is what I decided about trying to finish Sunday. Monday, though, was a beautiful cloudy day, the kind of day that makes Summer worth having. I sat by my front window all day and finished every stitch of this sweater, in between making sandwiches, changing diapers, moderating arguments, and getting boys to clean up legos. I FINISHED THE DANG SWEATER!! I used two full balls of yarn and less than a third of the next two, so I have plenty left for another full project. I'm not sure I like the fit of this sweater, but it's not blocked into shape yet. The main point is, that in the Summer of Finishing Projects, I have gotten over a major hurdle.
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