In an effort to get myself bloggin again, I thought I'd try to write every Thursday (or as often as I do...) about what I've been working on during the week.
This week, I've visited the frog pond. "Frogging" is knit-speak for ripping something out (ie, "rip-it, rip-it"), and sadly that's what I've been doing over the past couple of days. It always seems like such a waste of work, to have to rip out all those hours of knitting - but, it's a waste having a garment that you won't wear, so reverting the garment back to its yarny potential is actually quite exciting. Once you take the plunge, anyway!
In March I knit the Sinnesfried vest, in Malabrigo Rios, Solis colourway. I thought I was short on yarn, so rather than knitting the opening the full length, I opted for adapting it to just having a short mock front opening (one layer, with buttons for decoration).
This worked well for the yardage and I liked the look (no gaping on a tight button-front top!) and I actually had some yarn over.
However. I chose to make the size that was 0.25" smaller than my bust size, so that it would fit with approximately zero ease. But, the shoulders were too wide and the straps were constantly at risk of falling off my shoulders. I wore it once and was distracted all the time by how poorly it fit me, so in all honesty it wasn't going to be worn very much if it did that.
As this was a top-down knit, there was really no saving it, other than pulling it out and starting again.
After a few weeks on the mending pile, I decided it was time to let it go (as they say in Frozen), and start ripping.
It's a bit of a tedious process, pulling out the knitting, getting tangled, and winding it onto my swift, but episodes of Dr Who on my laptop have kept me company while I've been at it.
My swift is not the best piece of equipment I have. I love it, as it was made for my mother when she was in her twenties, and has a button from my grandfather's navy uniform on the top. But. It's really poorly weighted so I have to use pegs to hold it sitting out, and a loop of elastic to stop it falling all the way out. It also doesn't spin very freely so I have it sitting on a lazy susan instead. I feel very mixed about it because it frustrates me but has that sentimental value. *sigh*
The yarn comes out all crinkly, so I've temporarily twisted it up into skeins, but I'll have to wash it and hang it to dry to get the kinks out. Then I'll have to re-ball it and then I can start knitting again. It's an involved process, but it's worth it for the yarn. I think...
I have had some success during the week as well - I finished this very cute little cardigan. It was a test-knit for Tikki, a local designer who I regularly test for. The pattern is called Gidday Baby, and is soon to be released on Ravelry: there's currently a Knit-A-long (KAL) on the smallest two sizes, and the full pattern will be published very soon.
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