It doesn’t always look like the book

Well, not everything can be a rousing success, can it? Sometimes it takes two… or three tries to have a project turn out right.

You may recall that I had a bunch of yarn that I wanted to knit up into sweaters. I began this pursuit a couple of weeks before Christmas. This is what I was attempting to make:

Turtleneck ribknit sweater vest plus pencil drawing by Konik.

Cute, right? And the girl looks so happy wearing it. It only follows that I would look cute and happy wearing it, too. Right? Hmm.

This is a knitting board pattern. Cheater’s knitting. I don’t know how to knit with needles. I suppose I could learn, but I don’t care. I like my knitting board. I’ve made a whole passel of mittens on it, a few scarves, and one stocking hat. I figured it was high time to try something a little more substantial. This was in the “easy” section, so I naturally assumed — silly me — that it would be easy.

Well, technically, it was easy. But something went way wrong the first time I tried it. I could tell things weren’t quite right as I was knitting it because I hadn’t even reached the armholes yet and the thing was already down to my knees. I’d begun to resign myself that I was knitting a turtleneck tunic. But I made the mistake of leaving it on the back of the futon one night. The next evening when I went to pick it up, I noticed a huge snag. I suspect one of my adorable munchkins. There was no saving it at that point, leaving me no choice but to tear the whole thing out. Not one of the greater joys in life.

Take Two. I began this attempt at my turtleneck sweater vest by counting every single tiny row in the photograph and determined that my first attempt had been right on pace. This left me with one conclusion: the girl in the photo must be some kind of Amazon. Or maybe my yarn is just stretchier than what they called for. Either way, I needed to drastically shorten up this pattern, even though I had used the small measurements. I kept a tally of rows on a little post-it note and deleted a few rows in key places. Last night I sewed the front and back pieces together and was rather pleased that the length appeared to be right and the armholes were in the right place. I was a little disappointed, however, that the turtleneck turned out to be more of a cowl. Oh well.

Saggy baggy turtle

Today I wore the sweater. It’s warm and comfy and squishy. But therein ends the love affair. It is also extremely stretchy, and the longer I’ve worn it today, the lumpier and more misshapen it has become. The hem is all wavy and uneven looking and I think the collar is growing. I may end up with a tunic yet. Yes, of course I knew that rib knit is inherently stretchy, but I really didn’t anticipate this.

Looking hippy. And not in a peace and flowers kind of way.

There are a couple more sweaters out of the same book that I want to make. I’m going to have to adjust the patterns both vertically and horizontally. But hey, if it doesn’t work out, I hear that sweater dresses are trendy.