I’ve wanted to knit a lightweight cardigan that I can wear here on the peninsula for a while. It doesn’t get that cold here, but it’s the perfect weather for layering light sweaters. I bought 9 balls of GGH Safari linen on sale at the LYS a month or so ago (50% off woohoo!). They had a sample sweater knit up in it and it looked like the yarn would be the perfect weight if I knit it in a lace pattern. I’d also been wanting to play with knitting a one piece sweater from the top down. This seemed like a match made in heaven.
It started out just fine. I did my calculations for the neck and shoulder pattern, picked out a lace pattern from Barbara Walker vol 1 and started knitting. I made it through the arms, which I thought would be the tough part, just fine and started on the body.
As I was knitting the body, I went to visit a friend in Texas and took the cardigan with me to knit on the plane. It’s lightweight and fit easily into my carry-on purse. Extra yarn, check; knitting notions, check; pattern, um… no I’ll just figure it out as I go. And that’s where it all went wrong. Of course I didn’t realize it all went wrong until after I cast off the body. I guess I mis-measured (I looked pretty ridiculous measuring my torso while sitting in a plane seat) or miscalculated the waist decreases because instead of the opening lined by two parallel lines, it’s lined by two diverging lines. The waist is several sizes to small. *sigh*
The silver lining is that the lace I picked out looks fabulous. It’s Arrowhead Lace (p193) and Feather Faggot (p184) on the back and Little Arrowhead Lace (p193) on the front.
I’ve been in denial for a several weeks and haven’t looked at it or picked up a pair of needles. But I’ve decided that the mandatory waiting period for ripping has elapsed and I can’t think of another solution. I’ve decided to rip it back to the point that it all went wrong this weekend. Wish me luck.
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