Knitting crossroads

Hi, blog! Surprise, I’m not dead!

I’ve lost almost three weeks here, due to one member of my family or another being sick (including me, over Easter, such fun). So not much knitting or anything else crafty happening around here, just lots and lots of ibuprofen being administered, and more television than I or my kids have ever watched in our lives. (Including the Titanic mini-series done by the Julian Fellowes, who also created Downton Abbey. It was good, but I was bummed that the real people were more props to the fictional characters. I was still crying at the end, though which is kind of dumb; what did I expect, a happy ending this time?!)

I did get a little bit of work in on the green sweater, but all that managed to do was to bring me to a knitting crossroads of sorts. To be quite honest: I’m not thrilled with how it’s turning out. I have limited yarn, which led me to make some design compromises that I’m regretting  a bit now (such as the deep v-neckline that isn’t as flattering as I’d hoped). And the raglan shape isn’t working out the way I thought it would.

Disclaimer: I don’t actually own any raglans, which is perhaps a clue to me that they are not well-suited to my figure. I have broad shoulders, slender arms, and a small bust, so I need more space in the shoulders than my other dimensions would indicate. I thought if I increased the raglan lines and then worked straight (rather than trying to stagger the raglan increases so they would go the entire length of the yoke), I’d get a little more ease in the shoulders. But I ended up with a strange pucker in the fabric where the raglan lines end that makes the fabric bulge out a bit there.

I got to the end of the first skein of yarn (after dividing for the sleeves and completing the below-bust shaping) and decided the best way to see if the yoke was going to work out was to block it. So I pulled it off the needles, put it on waste yarn (stitch markers and all) and gave it a nice soak. (While I was at it, I frogged my initial swatch and soaked the yarn to smooth it out so I could re-knit it.)

Blocking identified another serious problem:  My row gauge is way off. My swatch’s row gauge after blocking was about 6.75 rows/inch. The actual sweater is measuring 6 rows/inch. Big difference. My yoke is thus about 8 rows too long, and my below-bust shaping starts 10 rows (almost 2″) below the bottom of my bust. Ugh.

So, what to do? I could frog back to the end of the raglan shaping and reknit, dividing for the sleeves earlier and increasing the rate of neckline increases (giving more of a sweetheart neckline than a v-neck). Or I could do something else entirely.

This sweater is a February Lady Sweater that I started some three years ago in Dream in Color classy (using the In Vino Veritas colorway). I followed it more or less as written, but wasn’t happy with the way the raglan yoke fit me (surprise), so I’ve never finished it. I also didn’t know back then that 1) superwash yarn grows a lot, 2) lace grows even more, 3) blocking a swatch is a good idea, and 4) what the term “negative ease” meant. (Go ahead and laugh, I’m laughing too!) It’s a bit loose on me now, so it’s a safe bet that if this thing ever hits water, it’s going to be too huge for me  to wear. It’s been on my “To Frog and Redo” list for a while now. I’d like to give it a scoop neck (like Amy Herzog’s February Fitted Pullover version), some waist shaping, and 3/4 length tapered sleeves.

So here’s the thing: I’ve got 1000 yards of the DiC yarn, which would be more than enough to knit my mostly-stockinette cardigan the way I want to. And the February Lady Sweater, because it’s mostly lace, uses a lot less yarn. (The 35-inch bust, which is the size I’d choose, uses 750 yards. I have 800 yards of the green yarn.)

What should I do? Should I frog the green sweater back to the end of the raglan shaping and re-knit it, or should I frog it completely and turn it into a February Lady Sweater, then frog the FLS and turn that into my twisted lace cardigan?

Anyone? Bueller? 🙂

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