What a Life!

It’s coming along. My sweater. The one that’s going to keep me warm.

I got about as far as it looks like I got in that picture over the weekend. Finished the back and got halfway up to the armhole on the front.

But pictures can be deceiving.

This morning at 4 a.m. when I was up nursing Joey, I decided I wasn’t going to like it the way I was making it, so when I got up for real at 5:30 or so, I started over.

In other words, what you see is the back – which will be frogged – and the new back, which is correct.

I know, it looks just fine in the picture. In fact, I’m really liking how it looks. My gauge is dead on and the fabric the yarn is making is very nice.

But the fabric I’m getting is very elastic, while my impression of the design from the pictures is that the fabric achieved with the yarn called for in the pattern is more dense. Those differences require adjustments in ease. With the more dense fabric, I think I would be happy with the amount of ease as I was knitting originally. With the more elastic fabric, I think I would be happier with a closer fit. So I’m redoing it with less ease and more shaping.

And I’m thinkin’ I’ll also be even happier with the final result than I had hoped. I like things with shaping better anyway. Yes, I wear sweatshirts and other over-sized garments on occasion. But you get more of the tent effect with that type of stuff. I don’t want to look like a football player all suited up for the game.

Speaking of football…Can you believe the Giants won? We were so excited. Steve was tired of hearing how the Patriots were the greatest team ever. While they were definitely good, they won a few of their 18 games this season with a luck. As in, one play could have turned it the other way for them. That kind of a win is not the kind of decisive win you would expect from a team that was really the greatest team ever. I must confess, I even listened to a bit of sports gossip talk radio this morning just to hear all the pundits change their tune. Such fun!

Back to knitting…I also changed the cast on method as well as how I am working the yarn as I go. I’ve recently become more aware of the issue of tension in knitting, and as I switched from knit to purl and vice versa, I was giving the yarn a tug to make sure there wasn’t slack between the stitches. I’ve quit doing that, which is much easier on my arms, and I’m getting the same result. The cast-on method I used in the original piece was the crochet cast on, which has nice elasticity. But it seemed a bit sloppy at the bottom, even though I used a smaller needle to cast on. This morning, when I started over, I used the German Twisted Cast-on, which I am much happier with.

There are times in life when you need to forget about what you’ve invested in something and quit putting anything into it, even if it means losing all you’ve invested so far. This would be one of those times. I’m loving the color of the yarn and how it feels in my hands, and I think I will love the fit so much more with the adjustments I’ve made. I can hardly wait until it’s finished and I can wear it…and be warm.

Speaking of being warm…We’re doing the cold-wet thing today with rain instead of snow. I almost prefer snow to rain – cold and damp is almost worse than just plain cold. Makes me shiver just to think of it.

Speaking of shivering…my dad ordered us an early birthday present (Steve’s and my birthdays are both next month) – an electric blanket. Supposedly it has already shipped, which means it will probably be here before the sweater is done. Warmth is closer than I had thought!

Back again to the knitting…In the end, since I am making my sweater smaller, I may not be doing as much extra work as one might think when you take into consideration the difference in knitting a smaller vs the larger size. The effort put into the adjusted pieces will be about the same as had I kept going with the larger version. About.

It’s all in a days work anyway, right?