I am a process knitter, I am a process knitter, I am...

I have to repeat this to myself every time I make a major visit to the frog pond..!

BTW: All purples in this post are redder in real life. Picovoli is wine-colored, and Mariner is fuchsia. My camera lies :-)

I did get a lot done on Saturday. So that was good... except. I am going to have to frog back to the white lifeline, below.

I realized this last night, but it was late, I was recovering from Yom Kippur and its attendant physical and psychological stresses, and I know better than to frog at night. Plus I really have to do some measurements pre-frogging, and I was in no way up to using a tape measure.



The tale: I had tried on the armholes on Picovoli as soon as I was able, worried (from Grumperina's notes in the pattern and her article on adding sleeves — I do plan to add short sleeves) that they'd be too tight. They weren't, so I whew'd and continued with the bust. Never stopped to think they might be too large!

Following the instructions, I duly moved all my stitches to a piece of string last night and tried on the top when I was about 2/3 way through the bust section. The shoulders fit perfectly — I would not want them any different. The neck opening is beautiful, very flattering. But I added WAY too many stitches under the arms. I followed the size 40 instructions, but I think the problem is caused by a couple of things.

First, even though I checked my gauge, and did the math, and decided to knit this at a size 40, figuring it would be a size 44 in reality, I really need a size 42. Second of all, my gauge does tend to loosen as I knit, and I think I'm getting a smidge — maybe a quarter-stitch over 4 inches — different than I did at gauge swatch time. Those two things would explain maybe 3 inches of the excess. There's more like 5, I think. Dunno what that is, except maybe my weird physiology, or possibly that my row gauge is enough off that the top's just hitting me in a different place than expected.

That's okay. Fortunately I put in a lifeline before adding the underarm stitches, so I just have to frog 24 rows and cast on a different # of underarm stitches, then do the math to retranslate the rest of the pattern instructions to take account of the smaller # of stitches in those places. But before I do that, I need to try it on again and use some clips to figure out exactly how many fewer stitches I want.

But. Just one little sniffle for the frog, folks. I was so happy about how much I'd done.

(I am a process knitter, I am a process knitter, I am a process knitter... if I say it enough, I'll believe it!)

Here, proof that Mariner does progress. I have reached the shoulder on one side, and am getting close on the other. And then I get to start.. the back.
I started Marguerite's Cozy In Cables tot sweater for either Children in Common or Dulaan. I had some small amounts of wool burning a hole in my stash (er, that is some messed up metaphor), but even though it sounded like more than enough, it's clear I'm going to run out of yarn. I'm still figuring out what to do about that. I could make this a vest, but then I'll have too much leftover. What I really need to do is find just a little bit more yarn that matches. Hmm. I don't have that much wool scrap yet, I don't think, but we'll see.

I like the idea of using charity knitting as a way to try out a pattern or a yarn. This is my first experience knitting with bulky wool, and although I still hate the big needles, it's a heck of a lot better than bulky cotton. So I learned something, and a kid will get a sweater, and that's good.