So I’m sure you all remember that I am in fact making my second ever sweater. My first sweater came out wearable but I hate the sleeves. Yes I still hate the sleeves. And in fact since I’ve lost weight it its a bit well ‘ease-y’ for my taste. With my figure I am much more appealing in fitted knits. A while ago I happened across the lucy cardigan, I was determined to make it. It was cute, seemed like a growing skills sort of knit (here was my first misstep) and something I would wear. So I went stash diving and looked my two lonely worsted yarns in sweater amounts. I was a good girl and swatched and had what only can be considered a knitting miracle when I got both row and stitch gauge. I never get gauge like that. Absolutely never. So I considered it a good sign and dedicated myself to this pursuit. I spent a wee (oh only an hour or three) bit of time trying to discover which cast on method would be best. I really wanted to cast on in pattern but the purl long tail cast on eluded me. I will however conquer it since I can see it being incredibly useful. So I resigned myself to the basic long tail cast on and duitfully did the seed stitch border. I worked until I got to the first button hole and even worked it out first in the swatch, thats how careful I was being. At this point I discovered to my horror and shame I had read the chart for the Lucy Cardigan well wrongly (this was totally due to my stupidity and lack of knitting skill). One of my great failings is that I hate to admit when I am wrong. I also hate to ask for help, generally prefering to rip my hair out and bang my head against a wall for a few days before doing the smart thing and in fact seeking help. I must have made real progress though because last weekend I only did that for half an hour before I emailed Cosmic Pluto my question. She was very kind and smothered her laughter and gave me the answer I needed thus confirming my inability to follow directions. And thus came the big decision. I was not thankfully that far into the pattern but the question became to frog or to fix. Now this sweater is knit all at once and that influenced my decision. Fixing a front or a back would have been easy…perhaps a bit time consuming but do-able. I was far enough along that fixing the stitch pattern was shall we say the type of thing that would make anyone not a masochist poke their eyes with their needles. So I ripped and thanked all that was holy that it was sticky wool and I was in fact able to pick up the stitches. I will admit that at this point I was a bit well out of sorts with my lucy and spent some time knitting some socks and working on lady E. However I still wanted her though I was tempted by other sweaters but I was disciplined and said nope Lucy will be the next one. So it’s a long weekend for Justin and myself which means loads of knitting time. So I sat down and had a chat with the pattern gods and made a sacrifice that this time it would in fact work for me. So I counted and re-counted and knew absolutely knew I had the count correct and started to work. I was so proud when I finished that first row. I was a Knitter and I had whipped my knitting and bent it to my will. So I purled back still happily under the delusion that I was doing the right thing and three quarters of the way through I looked and realized I had included the button band stitches in my count and thus everything I had done was wrong. I started to laugh with perhaps a touch of hysteria, clearly I was not in fact meant to make this sweater, perhaps I should stick with socks and accessories after all. Maybe that was my place as a knitter. Even though I love sweaters perhaps I should just admit I’m fine with those lovely thin knit merino cardigans. Then I took a deep breath and decided to fix it. I also at this point decided to employ the knitters best friend of stitch markers. So I made sure the rest of that row was done correctly, fixing it as I went. What to do about the rest though? Should I plunge on and fix as I went? That seemed to be a disaster in the making considering I was now up to row three of a 12 row repeat and dropping all those stitches and weaving them back again…So I decided to go through and mark where things were wrong and where they should be (I ran out of stitch markers) and slipped the stitches. It only took about an hour and at the end I had an (as far as I know it) absolutely correct beginning to my cardigan. I admit I may be as deluded as I was before and I foresee future knit-tragedies though when I get to the yoke/arm area, so stay tuned.
