Back at It

So, I've holding out on ya'll. I've been over my knitting funk for about a week now, and I've started plugging away on Swish Steeples again.

While it's not a very popular pattern on Ravelry, the pattern is very well written, and it's been smooth sailing so far. I've always knit raglan sweaters, and this marks my first bottom-up sweater. I'm a little anxious to see how the sleeves will fit into the armhole shaping, but so far it's going very well.

I only wish that I'd picked a more subtle color as it's a little--okay, very!--loud. I always get a little carried away when picking out yarn for a new project.

Time Flies

Sorry for the unexplained silence around here, folks. I spent last week visiting family in Texas and have finally recovered from the drive back to Kansas. On the up side, the twenty-two hour round-trip drive gave me the opportunity to finish Liesl.

About time, eh? Honestly, I was done with the actual knitting not long after my last update, but finishing it took me forever.

Since it's knit at such a loosey-goosey gauge, I was worried that the button holes would gap and pull unattractively. (You can kind of see it in the pattern photos.) In an effort to avoid unsightliness at my bustline, I decided to try my hand at sewing in snaps instead.

While the final product looks just fine, I have mixed feelings about the snaps. There's no way these puppies will ever gap unattractively, but they were a far bigger commitment than I ever anticipated. Each snap took me roughly one hour to sew into place, a large part of why this project dragged on and on. The snaps are still a little stiff and hard to separate, but I think they'll "break in" with use. If I had it to do over, I'd probably explore better button holes and different methods of snap installation instead.

Also, don't worry: it doesn't escape me that this sweater remarkably similar to the last sweater I knit. No more blue, three-quarter length sleeve, three-white-button sweaters for awhile. I have it out of my system now. Promise.

Lessons (Re)Learned

Two weeks after casting on, I'm still ripping knitting away at Liesl. Given how much time I've spent on it, I should have finished it a week or more ago, but I broke a couple of cardinal knitting rules (read: made stupid mistakes) along the way and have had to do the penance.

First, I fancied myself better than the humble gauge swatch. Now I know just how important swatching is, but I figured that the lace pattern would be stretchy and forgiving. So why bother? Well, nine or so inches in, I realized that there was no way that it ever would button in the front. So, I ripped out what turned out to be the biggest swatch of my knitting career. (That's exactly why bother.)

Not to be disheartened, I went up a needle size, started again, and was feeling rather smug about the whole thing. The gauge was spot on, and it was flying off the needles. Then, halfway down the body, I reached end of a row and had three stitches left over.

When I went back and read the lace, I realized that I had royally messed up two repeats (eight rows) back. Because I was too smug or too lazy, I didn't bother to place markers after each repeat. I had a heck of a time running a lifeline above the mistake, and long story short, it was ultimately easier (and probably faster) to rip the whole darn thing out and start fresh.

So, I started once again with the correct needles and placed stitch markers between each and every repeat. I will finish this sweater yet! I'm finally halfway through the first sleeve and am optimistic that the third time's going to be the charm. With any luck, I'll have a finished sweater to share soon.

April Lady Sweater

As I was pulling out yarn for the next project I'm planning, I spied a nearly finished sweater in the back of the linen closet and felt compelled to do something about it already. And, so I did.

There's so much to say about this sweater that it's kind of hard to know where to begin. The yarn is Cascade 220 that was reclaimed from my very first sweater, which left a lot to be desired.

My first sweater was knit using Barbara Walker's guidelines in Knitting from the Top. While it's an amazing book (and I should have known better), I ignorantly followed every general sizing recommendation she made instead of customizing it to fit my body. Needless to say, I ended up with a man-sized tunic with very dramatic waist shaping. Thankfully, there isn't any photographic evidence of this catastrophe to share here.

I'm pleased as punch that I was able to give that unfortunate sweater a new life as a, if I do say so myself, much better sweater. The new sweater is, of course, the ubiquitous February Lady Sweater. I cast on back in December but just finished last weekend. The actual knitting only took about a month, but the sweater had to sit in "time out" for awhile. (Surely I'm not the only one who does this?)

To be completely honest, I made a somewhat monumental mistake early on in this project: In the increase round, I accidentally added too many stitches in the sleeves. So when I went to go knit the first sleeve, I had the horrifying realization that I could fit my entire head into the sleeve.

I was too mad at myself to rip it all out, so I threw the whole mess into the back of the linen closet. After stewing about it for a couple months, I realized that I could just omit the extra underarm stitches and incorporate a few strategically placed decreases, and viola! Sleeves I can't fit my head into.

Unfortunately, my knitting progress is about to slow way, way down for awhile. As I was pouring a cup of tea Monday morning, boiling water splashed out of the cup onto my left hand. I have a sizable second degree burn on the top of my hand that requires near hand-mummification to keep protected, making knitting slow and awkward.

It's going to be a long couple of weeks.