So hey, look at me, staying away from the laptop! I wish I could say it’s because I’ve been knitting until my fingers fell off, but that’s only a small part of the story. You see, my husband gave me the best gift I could have wanted: the gift of space. I’m setting up a new office for myself in a chunk of his painting studio, and let me tell you: That is a project. Over the past week, we’ve been deaccessioning, cleaning, reorganizing, building, assembling. And we’ve barely made a dent in it. Oy.
Meanwhile, yes, there has been knitting. But brace yourself, for this is a sad story. On Friday afternoon, knowing the next four days would be all manual studio labor, I decided to sit down on the couch with my Walpole and knit until I could knit no more. I really really wanted to have this done before the calendar flipped over to 2013 — perhaps even to wear it as I rang in the New Year. The night before, I had steamed the front panels, measured the relaxed fabric (good news: no need to rip out any of my work!), made a decision to change the proportion of the sweater (to a shorter length), and charted out my yoke decreases. All of which meant Friday afternoon began with the moment I’ve long been waiting for: joining the sleeves to the body. Those first few rounds after the union were a bit stressful (even more for the underarm stitches than for me) but I was soon sailing along.
By the end of the night, with just a handful of rows to go, I was able to pull the cardigan on for the first time. The armhole depth seems great. My decreases are working out beautifully. I could picture myself wearing it as the ball dropped. Yay me! Then I took it off, caressed it a little (have we talked about this yarn?) and my heart sank. Those last couple of rounds — it being quite late and there having been beer — I had somehow screwed up the I-cord selvage on one side. Those three brilliant, simple little stitches. Derailed in the most visible spot possible. I’ve tried everything I can think of to debug it, but to no avail. And I have no idea how to rip this out and get those three edge stitches and the working yarn oriented correctly. No. Earthly. Idea.
But wait — I wasn’t at all certain I’d be getting the yoke calculations correct; didn’t I leave myself a lifeline? Well, sure I did. You can see it in the wretched snapshot … all the way back at the union round. So I’m going to try ripping out just four rows and seeing if I can figure it out. But if anyone wants to place bets, the smart money is on my ripping all the way back to the lifeline. Sometime in 2013.
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I hope everyone’s having a lovely and relaxing holiday season and planning a wild time tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off the knitalong!
