10 October 2011

Ups and downs.

So yesterday, I settled down in front of the football game with my cardigan and its 306 picked-up stitches and started to knit. As I knitted, I remembered lots of things about this sweater -- how I really like the yarn, love the cables, my mattress stitch is flawless, and it's just a generally great sweater. I haven't worked on it in almost a year. (Pay attention; that tidbit will be important later.)

So I'm knitting and knitting, and after I get done with about 8 rows (of 306 sts each) I thought to myself that the ribbing feels kind of loose. I checked the ball band and the yarn, Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran, calls for a US 8. I was working with a US 7, so that's ok, right? I knitted a couple more rows and just couldn't shake that feeling that the ribbing felt awfully loose, especially when compared to the ribbing at the sleeves and around the hem. I went to Ravelry and pulled up my project page. Lo and behold, I realized I was quite right. The ribbing was loose compared to that which I had knitted last fall, because I'd used a US 4 to knit it.

(For the non-knitters in the audience, a US 4 is a 3.5 mm needle. A US 7 is a 4.5 mm needle. While a millimeter may not seem like much of a difference, TRUST ME, IT'S HUGE.)

Oh, the horror. The wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The rending of garments.

Yep, that's right. I yanked the needle right out of my sweater and proceeded to rip it out. Luckily I came to my senses before pulling out all those carefully picked-up stitches, and saved them with an appropriately sized needle.

My later endeavors for the day were equally unfortunate. I tried setting in the sleeves of my big pink sweater, and failed spectacularly. I tried starting a new pair of fingerless gloves. They're too big.

The one bright spot of the last 36 hours is that I have decided on my Personal Knitting Challenges for 2012. I'm super excited about them, and want to have some more things nailed down before I share my plans, but rest assured that I am totally psyched! And most of it involves stash yarn already!

2 comments:

Gale Bulkley said...

We all have weekends like that and it sure is frustrating. It will be great to see the finished forestry and your new pink sweater.

Larkin said...

Oh my.
And DUDE! I can't believe that sweater has been knit, like - 4 times! That's some impressive super-yarn.