Anyway, remember this guy?
Of course you do, I've been taunting you with pictures of it for months. Well, it's seamed, blocked, and dry, but it's too damn short.
Let me tell you a little something I figured out about negative ease. This is probably incredibly obvious, although it didn't occur to me until after I had already made the mistake. This sweater measures 36" around and 22" long when it's on the ground. 22" long seems just fine, I have plenty of sweaters that length and they fit great. I have a 38" bust. I like the 2" of negative ease, I think a worsted weight cabled sweater should fit a little snug on someone with my body type, so I don't look like a giant wooly ball. But here's the kicker. That 2" stretch has to come from somewhere. Hence the sweater being too short once I put it on. Doh. So now I will be attempting to rip out the ribbing from the bottom and reknitting the ribbed part longer. Eek! Scary.
You know how with some projects, you're so excited about knitting it that mistakes come along and you just rip right back and keep on going? Because you chalk it all up to part of the general knitting process? And you know that no project will ever come out right the first time through? And knitting puts you in such a zen mindset that little errors just roll right off your back? Yeah, me neither. I always think that every project will be perfect the first time, and every mistake or setback just pisses me off and I have to hide the project in the closet for a while until I'm calmer. Hence the fact that this sweater has been hiding in my closet for a few weeks. I'm almost ready to take it back out and fix it.
Socks seem to be the exception to this rule. They don't piss me off nearly as much as bigger projects. I don't know why that is.
I finished the first Koigu Monkey sock (toe-up) all on size 2.5mm needles, and the leg was way too tight. Somehow the sock managed to charm its way out of being chucked in the closet and I just ripped the leg out, reknit the ankle on size 2.75mm, and the rest of the leg on 3.0mm. Perfect!
I am totally converted to this whole toe-up thing. The miser in me loves using up every last yard of yarn. Now if I can only make myself cast on for the second sock.
2 comments:
You know, I hadn't thought of the 3 dimensional negative ease/length problem, either. No wonder so many of my sweaters, store bought or knit, are too short! Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm sorry you had to be reminded of this fact in such an unfortunate way. Your sweater is beautiful. Is there any way it'll lengthen if you let it hang for a while?
The sock is gorgeous. I love the way the yarn works with the pattern, with the little wavelets it's creating.
It's such a pretty sweater! Don't worry about ripping out the ribbing, it's not hard at all. Just be sure to leave a long enough yarn end on the body so you have something to darn in. Good luck!
Post a Comment