purlsandmurmers

Rip and Reknit? or not

I've been going through the sweater closet, going through what fits, what doesn't, and what I need.  I've frankly been dreading this, although so far, and I have only barely begun it hasn't been to bad.  

The first sweater on the reject pile has been the rice stitch cardigan that I knit out of Karabella Super Cashmere back in 2007.  Here is a picture of me wearing the sweater when I finished it, and here is a link to the relevant posts.

Now the sweater was fine then.  But I am about 20 -22 pounds lighter now, and about 4 inches smaller through the bust, 8 or 9 inches smaller through the waist, and far less barrel shaped.  The sweater literally hangs on me in a most unflattering way.  

My decision now is whether to rip it and reknit it, or just give it away.  I am inclined to rip and reknit for several reasons.

1. The yarn is really nice, fairly expensive, and I used a lot of it (20 skeins I believe) and it was a joy to knit.

2.  I love the color.

3.  It looks like it has held up really well, there is no apparent piling or fraying of the yarn even though I wore this sweater quite a bit over the winter and long spring last year.

My question is how well does cashmere hold up to rippng and reknitting?   Good quality wool holds up pretty well, so I am assuming good quality cashmere does as well.  If it were alpaca I wouldn't even consider it, alpaca can be difficult to rip just to reknit a problem area in a project that hasn't yet been blocked or worn.

If you have thoughts or experience please advise.  

I will not be knitting the same sweater.  Much as I loved this sweater, it is fairly firmly knitted and hangs straight without much drape.  It would not flatter me now. I do expect to have some yardage loss in the ripping process but I should still have plenty to knit something quite nice, something in a looser, softer gauge.

Finis!

Well, the rice stitch cardigan is Done!

And here it is in all its glory, this photo taken just minutes after I finished sewing on the last button.  The sweater was pulled on and we dashed outside for a photo before the sun got to low in the sky for a decent shot. 

By the time this one was taken it was too late to get any detail photos, but you've seen the details as we went along, right?

I love this sweater, but yes, I can wait for it to be cold enough to wear it again.

Ladders

Pictures of the rice stitch cardigan will be coming soon.

Ribbing is my nemesis.  Or perhaps it is any stitch pattern with a count of 4, of which K2 P2 rib is only one of many options.  Needless to say the ribbed collar to the rice-stitch cardigan was not error free.  All those late night knitting hours were probably not the best idea.  But it is done.

I did not rip the collar out and start over.  That promised too many hours of work with little guarantee that the same errors would not be repeated.  Instead, as I bound off the edge of the collar, I simply dropped stitches whenever I found a column which contained a purl that should have been a knit stitch, or a knit stitch that should have been a purl.  About 2 hours of work were still involved, as I figure I dropped about one-third of the columns of stitches, but not nearly as many hours as would have been required to reknit the entire collar.

All that is left is the edging along the lower front, the buttons and the buttonholes. 

Then, perhaps, Spring knittnig. Or not.

The Long Goodbye

I always seem to underestimate how long the actual finishing of a sweater will take.  I know, intellectually, that seaming up and knitting bands and collars etc takes time, but at some place in my knitters heart, once I am done with the actual knitting of the pieces of a sweater I think of it as done and I start moving on to dreaming of the next piece and preparing myself to spend time with a new project.  Hence it always comes as a bit of a surprise, although it shouldn't really, that it takes longer to get the sweater out of my basket and onto the shelf than I expect.  Sweaters knitting projects are a lot like the kind of guest who says "its time to go" and then talks another half hour, then starts to leave and repeats the process over and over so that it takes an hour or more to get through the ritual of "leaving".

I don't actually begrudge the time spent finishing a sweater.  A sweater assembled well is a joy and I enjoyed sewing up the Rice Stitch Cardigan although I did put it off a while, not so much because I didn't want to to do it, but because it required long chunks of undistracted time.  The collar is also proving to be a long process, which of course I would have realized had I actually spared the time to think about it.  The collar is about 60 inches long and 6 inches wide, all done in k2, P2 ribbing.  Each row takes forever. 

Well actually each row takes about 15 minutes if I am awake and paying attention.  If I am tired the time can slow to 20 minutes.

Twelve rows have been completed here:

24 more rows to go, a crocheted edge along the bottom band, and 5 buttons.  I estimate about another 6 to 7 hours.  Needless to say it will not be finished today.

Almost Done

It took me long enough, but I finally stopped procrastinating and assembled the body of the rice-stitch cardigan.  It was actually quite easy to seam and all the appropriate lines of the pattern lined up perfectly.  I don't know which angel was looking over my shoulder, but I extend my thanks.

After I assembled the body and tried it on, I had had doubts, it seemed to pouch out at a funny angle through the armscye.  But of course, one can't tell until the sleeve is in place.

So I basted up a sleeve:

and basted it into the body of the garment.  The fit was pretty good.  The sleeve length was perfect and the little bit of extra shaping (a few well placed short-rows in the sleeve cap) were perfect:

Finally, it was time to soak the sleeves and block them.  This fabric is rather stiff before that initial wash, but becomes lush and soft after blocking. 

While the sleeves are blocking I can pick up the stitches around the neckline and begin the collar.  Will I be finished for a little bit of showing off at Thursday night knitting?  I hope so.  After all, I am (semi) retired now, right?  I can work when I want.  I can knit when I want.

All systems go

The rice stitch cardigan is on the blocking board, and everything looks like a go to me.  The actual measurements match the intended measurements and all seems good.  I haven't sewn the body together, but it looks good.  Onward with the sleeve cap.

Blocking was not acomplished until this evening, on the kitchen island.  It is OK.  I am not planning on using the kitchen for a few days.

Knitting Done and Undone

Knitting and socializing, it seems do not always go hand in hand, even at Knitting Circle.  Of course it had been weeks since I had been to Thursday knitting and I was desperate and determined that nothing would stand in my way this week.

I arrived, cardigan in hand, with the six inches I had knitted on my Wednesday train commute ready to go:

I was actually pretty happy with how the knitting was progressing.  Apart from minor upsets, and a short two-row rip at the beginning of the evening, I thought I was making great progress knitting and chattering away.  I did not get quite as far in 3 hours of knitting as I had the previous day on the boring train ride, but an additional 4 inches of rice-stitch were nothing to be sneezed at, until I actually looked at my knitting that is. That is when I learned that my  illusions of knitting success, were actually just that -- illusions. 

So eager was I to be back at Knitting Circle that I was like the puppy who is so happy to see her masters return home that she jumps up and down, wagging her tail and barking, rolling around on the floor, never realizing that she is rolling around in her own pee.

I had started the evening ready to begin the decreases before the waist.  And I proceeded to do them at the required intervals, never messing up my pattern while doing so.  So what went wrong?  I decreased on both ends of the row, that's what.  This is a cardigan.  I am only knitting half a front so the decreases want only to be at the side seam, not at the center front.  No matter how much weight I ever loose in my wildest, thinnest dreams, and I am pretty stable weight wise right now, I will never be able to wear a sweater that is only 10 inches from side to side.

And so, I am back where I started.  But I am still far ahead because I got to spend time with fellow knitters and my knitting spirit is revived and ready to move forward. 

Can I finish the left front before next week?

Progress, Finally!

After 10 days without knitting (how DID that happen?) I have been knitting like a mad woman.  I got abut 4 inches knitted on the back of the sweater on Sunday, between a fabulous contemporary music concert and some quality reading time as well.  Then Monday night and a good bit of today I was determined that I would finish the back of the sweater.  Although I am only a fraction of the way through the sweater it feels like a great accomplishment.  Since this is a cardigan, the biggest single piece is done, and the bigger pieces are always the hardest for me to get through.

I can't get the whole thing in my camera view so you only get a partial shot:

It hasn't been blocked yet so there are still a few lumps and bumps to work out, but I think it is looking pretty good.

I am gong in to NYC tomorrow and this allows me to start one of the front pieces on the train.  The thought of lugging that big bulky back piece all over Manhattan did not thrill me, and I am going to start out with enough of a burden because I have to take my sewing machine in for repair as well.  With the demise of Amazing Threads (or at least its sale and the loss of the sewing machine department) there is no longer anyone nearby who is willing to take on my Elna and whom I would trust to do so.

Life Intervenes

Life got in the way this week.  Actually, work got in the way of life.

There was no knitting...

No progress...

Nothing to report.

Until today anyway.  I finally ordered the brown Super Cashmere to finish the sweater.  Although I seriously considered the vest, and I do think it is an attractive vest, I have never been a vest wearer and an expensive cashmere vest didn't seem like the best way to begin.  Besides, as some of you pointed out, I had my heart set on a cardigan -- so cardigan it is.

Since I was placing the order for the extra cashmere, I also ordered the yarn to knit this spring Anny Blatt sweater:

Unfortunately although most of the accent yarns are in stock, I was informed that the base yarn, Selene, has not yet arrived, so there will be a little bit of a wait. 

It is going to take me a while to finish the cashmere anyway and I do believe there are other things on the list as well.  I do hope, however, that the yarn does arrive before the next season begins.

Nineteen

I hadn't planned on watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night, but I did, and because I did I also got the rice stitch cardigan back knitted up to the armhole shaping,  19 inches or rice stitch, since this sweater has been lengthened for my extra height.  This gave me an opportunity to take the sweater off the needles, take some measurements, and make some calculations about yarn requirements before proceeding.

The news is not good. 

In order to make the pattern in the length and size I wish, with sleeves, I need at least 4 more skeins and probably 6 because I am pretty confident that the sleeves as written are going to be too short.  Before I continue with this sweater (shown off the needles), some decisions need to be made.

First of all, can I procure 6 more skeins of the same dye lot?  Does it matter?  Well that depends on how much the dye lots vary, with some yarns it matters more than others.

Do I want to buy 6 more skeins of a rather expensive yarn, or should I just knit something else?

I do have enough yarn to knit this sweater as shown in the Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting magazine, as a vest, and a vest is not such a bad thing.  I just had my heart set on a jacket.

Or do I just knit something else.  I certainly have enough yarn to knit a perfectly nice turtleneck or other pullover in stockinette, perhaps even with a cable or pretty shaping.  The rice stitch called for in this pattern eats through the yardage.

Still, I wonder, how did I end up so short of yarn.  The sweater I am knitting was a kit.  I am not altering the size of the sweater that much, lengthening it a little, but my gauge is only a little bit tighter than the pattern calls for, 5 stitches per inch instead of 4.9 stitches per inch.  When I calculate how much yarn I would need as the pattern is written I still come out 2 skeins short.  So why did they only send me 17 skeins when I needed 19 or even 21? I am sure that I would have told the girl that took the order that I was lengthening the cardigan, but I guess I can't expect them to calculate the extra yardage needed for that; if she had told me the dimensions of the sweater, I could have calculated the difference in the square inches and told her how much extra yarn to order. 

In the end however, even if they had sent me 19 skeins, I would still have been short, and I would still be facing this dilemna.

If I go for the vest at least I can continue knitting, without ripping out, washing the yarn, and starting over.

Vest?
Cardigan?
or completely different sweater?