Retreat, regroup, relax, reknit?
Or, a post in four parts.
First, thanks so much to everyone who commented and emailed, for all your sympathy and suggestions about my seamless alpaca debacle! I retreated from the sweater and resisted burning it in the grate. A large relative’s visit is looming on the weekend, and I might just do the lofty thing and give it away. It still is rather gorgeous looking, for all its misshapenness, but I think I’ll feel happier knowing it will keep *someone* warm, even if it isn’t the originally intended recipient. So instead, I knit on my Cobblestone for a bit, adding some waist shaping (can you spot my full-fashioned decreases?)
Second, after achieving this high-minded closure, I regrouped my ego and nerves, and went to various LYSs in search of the perfect (read affordable – have you seen the friggin’ prices on some of these????) wool/alpaca blend. I fantasised about buying ten skeins, knitting the swatch on the bus back and voila, hey presto, being done by Christmas. Alas, only one store in our area carries Berroco Ultra Alpaca (Thanks to all who recommended it!), and they had only three skeins of the one shade the spouse liked. I did try Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, but it was too scratchy around his neck, not ideal for a turtleneck. But when I realised my pullover-in-two-week fantasy was going the way of my dramatic-weightloss-in-two-weeks fantasy, I decided to wait and order it at leisure. (Talking of weight loss, my last post with those two words got pingbacks from strange sites – those that trawl blog posts for such popular key phrases, I guess. I’m probably getting a lot of disappointed visitors who expect to find diets but see alpaca yarn instead.)
Third, this epiphany was followed by another: the last thing I wanted to do was measure gauge and fret about size (talking of key phrases, ahem). Final papers were soon to arrive. Why not go for something relaxing and simpler? So I did. I knit him a pair of felted clogs with Cascade 220. He’s happy with them, even though they’re – you guessed it – a bit too large! I’m going to give them one more spin in the hot washer the next time I do laundry.
And finally, fourth:
This aran is knit with the same yarn as the Cobblestone above: a light worsted merino called La Paz, handpainted by Laura Macagno-Shang of Textiles a Mano. The sweater is five years old, and was my first major aran project after learning how to read charts and patterns. I picked up a Vogue Knitting pattern and sort of went with it, changing an ugly shawl collar to the V. It was great for my knitting confidence overall and I’ve worn it a lot.
Problem is, I only ever wear the sweater at home, because I don’t care for the aran pattern anymore, and I hate the way the cabled sleeves look puffed; I feel vaguely like an American footballer. While it’s very comfy, it is quite shapeless, the sleeves rather long, it’s too bulky under the arms and the finishing would now make me blush. It’s a shame, because I love the yarn, which has begun pilling only now, after years of heavy wear, and the subtle brown shades.
See the hole right at the waist in the central panel? That was what got me thinking – what if I were to unravel and reknit the yarn into a more fitting and interesting pattern? Any suggestions for what might look good in this yarn? A search on Ravelry for cardigans and pullovers is like setting off an avalanche and being drowned in patterns, so any specific suggestions are most welcome. Hope everyone’s holiday knitting is coming along well!
Props to you for finding a quick, cute and forgiving project to get yourself back on track. As for the unraveling, there are probably a zillion patterns that would look good in that yarn, but lately I’ve been hankering after Oblique, myself.
Oh, and you cracked me up with your “alpaca debacle”. Can we refer to it henceforth as the alpacle?
Who’s reading Hegel?
Brain cells dead from end of semester — but alive enough to say that I am looking forward to seeing your cobblestone.
Cheers!
I love the colour of the sweater you are thinking of reknitting, now tell me the reknit – is it because the colour, the waste of good yarn, or is it a money saving thing? I guess I wonder at the reuse of 5 year old yarn – but there is something about a warm cuddly sweater that is old enough to do chores in. but I’d also love to see it reknit at a new going out and about garment.,
I got nothing. I’m equally overwhelmed by the amount of patterns that spill forth from Ravelry. I do look forward to seeing what you’ll eventually decide on though.
I’d say rip and re-knit! why not???? you should definitely have enough yardage for a more fitted sweater. what about the cable down raglan from IK?
There is a way to narrow down patterns on ravelry, have you seen that? If you click on the pattern button there’s two little links right below the search box, and if you click on the one to the right you can set all sorts of parameters, like knitting only, what weight of yarn, how many stars the pattern got, etc. It helps a lot – we got 112 pages of hat patterns narrowed down to 7 Wednesday.
You shouldn’t call your relative “large” – people have feelings, you know.
The Cobblestone yarn you’ve chosen is lovely, and I really like your roomy old sweater. I guess the ideal pattern for the yarn will depend on what sort of sweater you’d like to have — something jackety? a comfy pullover or cardigan? What about something like the Minimalist Cardigan from the fall Interweave Knits?
I love the colors of that Cobblestone. They’re like beautiful stained glass.
I am pretty fond of my Pure & Simple neck down shaped cardigan, myself. And it looks lovely in slightly variegated colors like your comfy sweater.
Hey, I remember when you knit that sweater! And even when you bought the yarn–wasn’t it at that weird craft fair thing they had one year on campus, and then when you needed more it was our real introduction to the wonderful world of Laura’s yarns?
I always liked that sweater, but I think ti makes sense to frog and reknit in something else if you want different use out of it. The yarn’s great, and I bet it’d hold up to the frogging without a problem.
Aha, so you did take my advice after all…socks, clogs, same difference.
If you’re still contemplating an aran from the soon-to-be-frogged sweater, I like Beth Brown-Reinsel’s Celtic Dreams http://www.knittingtraditions.com/patterns_main.htm
Another cute pattern is the Tweedy Aran Cardi from a long ago IK- http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2006/02/tweedy_aran_car.html
They’re making those patterns available on the Knitting Daily shop, so you could always request it.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
Just found your page,and wanted to comment on your sweater ,I am a new knitter [just 2 needle hats so far ]and I would NEVER take apart that beautiful sweater,you will miss it ,mend the hole and buy more yarn,