Weird. And frustrating.
I decided to make two sweaters for two babies who were born recently, and happen to live in the same building (in different flats, with different parents). I thought it would be nice to make two different raglans, and jazz them up a bit with some embroidery – one for a girl, the other for a boy. I’ll blog about the one I did finish a bit later for the baby girl, but right now I want to vent a bit about the one that is about to retire in disgrace.
Body done, half a sleeve done, an hour’s work away from finishing up the sweater. I thought I would use some of the golden sock yarn I bought last week to embroider a Cal Bears type pattern on it. But I finally realised that what I thought was just the curl of the fabric is, after all, some serious mis-shaping, and proportion gone wrong. The front is wider than the back by nearly an inch.
WTF? I followed the exact numbers in the pattern (.pdf) all the way through. I got gauge (5 spi). I thought it would be a quick, yet interesting twist on the Reliable Raglan. Instead, it’s weirdly baggy in parts. I peered closely at the sample in the pattern and the photos of the finished projects on Ravelry, and oddly enough some of them do seem a bit loose in the front, but none of the 109 people who made this have complained about the bagginess. So maybe it’s just me, and I knit the front more loosely than the back…. I don’t know. See how one edge peers out over the other:
I hate it when such simple things turn out to be more work than they ought. Am also wishing it wasn’t a seamless raglan, requiring me to frog everything back instead of just one piece. After toying with a pattern of my own, I chose this one because it would be mindless plane knitting during my trip to Vancouver. But in the end I think I’m madder because I chose it over the Vancouver Violet sock yarn I was itching to start working on.
But you know what the weirdest thing is? This yarn really makes my allergies go crazy. It’s bizarre. I wound up a new skein last night, and sneezed like it was a contest and I wanted to win the largest-number-in-a-minute race. Having knit with wool for 30+ years, I still cannot believe that I might be allergic to it in this sneezy rather than scratchy way. Other yarns I have worked with recently have also made me congested, but not like this one. I keep looking at it suspiciously as if it’s the evil cause of the horrid allergies ever since I brought it into the house, even though that can’t really be true, can it? It can’t be casting a spell on my sinuses from within its plastic packaging in my closet.
Honestly, I could finish the sweater, block the front a bit aggressively and be done with it – like the baby’s ever going to notice, right? – but somehow I can’t bring myself to do it. And if I, usually of the If-It’s-Not-Glaringly-Visible-It’s-Not-a-Mistake philosophy feel like that, that must mean something. It’s going into the closet for a while as I contemplate a different yarn and project for this baby. And maybe start something with the Vancouver Violet. Like these lovely Maeve socks.
