Before I moved, I finished my very first sweater.
The pattern was a gift to me in a yarn swap and all the rage online. People were knitting it up left and right and loving every minute of it. It seemed like a great first sweater project because I would have plenty of support from the online knitting community. Once I had made it, I completely understood why everyone loved it so much. It was simple top down construction with no seaming. It was made out of bulky yarn so it was super quick to knit up. All around it was a great gratification piece. I finished mine and wore it before I left town.
Unfortunately I only had to wear it for twenty minutes before it was undeniable that it was too big. The bulky yarn and the garter stitch didn't really have much for drape, and I felt like I was wearing a light weight version of football pads around my shoulders. I wore it for the rest of the evening anyway because I was outrageously proud, but I knew it was going to have to be frogged and redone. Since moving a frogged sweater just sounds like a knot waiting to happen I set it aside intact and waited until we got here to pick it up again.
The great think about a quick knit is that when you knit it in a smaller size it goes even quicker ;). Not long after I finished my
second sweater, Juliet was knit back up. Unfortunately in the move, I lost her button. (This is the dramatic climax of the story so I'm going to play it up a bit) I searched everywhere! I dug though all of my yarn and notions. I searched among my beads and other miscellaneous craft stuffs. I unpacked boxes that I had planned on not opening until we moved again. Then this weekend when I drop a stitch marker, I had to pull back one of the cushions on the couch. There was the button. It was a joyously tearful reunion. Now my Juliet is finished.
I learned a lot making Juliet, but I'm not certain it is a pattern I would have picked out on my own. Because of my pear shape, I generally try to avoid raglan seams. (Those are the shoulder seems that start at your armpit and go towards your neck.) They narrow my shoulders, and really I need my shoulders to look wider to offset my hips. I tried to fix that with
boobholder like top half. I was hoping that the plunging neck would accentuate curves and distract from the shoulders. However, in doing this, I created a babydoll like flair which hides my waist. While my waist isn't perfect, it does help create the hourglass look.
The long and short of it is that I loved knitting this top, but it doesn't really fit my style or my body type. I'm afraid I won't wear it very often. I'm not going to frog it, and I'm going to try to encouage myself to wear it. I'm also going to be keeping my eyes open for another pattern that calles for 600+ yrds of bulky yarn. So the story of Juliet ends with:
To Be Continued....
The Brooklyn Tree socks have been finished and re-queued. Hubby and I both want a pair, because these are some of the coolest socks I have ever seen (let alone made). This pair was made with Essential Tweed in Blue Ox. Through the middle of the arch shaping, I started to worry that they were going to be way too long. I just kept reassuring myself that the hubby has long feet and they would be fine. (I've been using Mike's feet as a gauge for what size to make his dad so he's been trying these on constantly.) When I finished the arch shaping, he tried them on and they were still about 3 inches short of the end of his foot. I knit another inch straight, and then the foot sizing said they were ready for me to start the toe. By the time the toe was done, I thought I had some how accidentally knit a pair of socks for a clown.
Can you see what I'm talking about? Look at how long those are from the heels to the toes. Well, I guess it is an optical illusion because they are so skinny. They almost fit me just fine.
They are smidgen too long, but not a full inch. You can't even tell in this picture that they are too big. They fit the sock blocker nicely too.
The true test is how they fit Mike though, so here (in his modeling debut) are the socks on him.
Notice how well he shows off both the top and the bottom of the socks in one photo. That is pure skill; I didn't even have to ask him to do that. He says they fit great and are wonderfully comfortable. I think that I will go up one needle size when I make his. Since these fit both of us fine, I think a little extra room isn't going to hurt him, and he is pulling the spots that have two increases in a row a little tight for my satisfaction.
