10-17-2011 - Post from my old blog

Cardigan Surgery

I finished both fronts and the back piece of my Drops 111-33 cardigan, but I had a small problem. After finishing the first front, I gave it a bath and set it out to dry. It turned out a bit smaller than I had expected from my swatch. I decided to do the second front and then just make the back a little bigger if necessary.

But the second front piece turned out bigger – it matched what I had expected from the swatch. Grrrr. I figured I might as well knit the back and then decide what to do about the different fronts. The back matched the second front, so I had to figure out what to do with the first one. It mostly just needed lengthening at the bottom – so I figured I might as well try a bit of surgery.

I put a thin needle through a row of stitches just above the ribbing, and then another one in the row 2 rows above. I snipped a thread on the row in between, and unraveled it. I added a few rows, and then grafted the pieces back together. I think it came out pretty well!

A little shoulder adjustment too, and I think I’m on the right track.

11-15-2001 - Post from my old blog

Bad Flouncy! Bad!

I mentioned that I was having problems with my Flouncy cardigan. (AKA: “111-33 Jacket in stockinette st with flounce borders in ‘Alpaca’” – gotta love those names)

I had the fronts and back done, and the sleeves done past the elbows – and all seamed together. But it was just not right. It was a bit snug (though acceptable) in the hips and waist, but way too big across the chest and shoulders. One front piece was smaller than the other due to a gauge issue, and although I’d added in some extra rows and blocked the heck out of it, it still wasn’t really quite right.

I unseamed everything and ripped the back down to the waist, and then reknit the back with fewer increases through the bust. I hopefully pinned it all back together, but it was still a disaster. After throwing in the corner for a few days while I sulked worked on other projects, I finally decided to just rip the whole @#^ thing out and start over.

So here we are… from nearly finished, to barely started.

So what went wrong? I guess a lot of things combined.

• I made a poor decision on size, choosing to knit a size that would have a couple of inches positive ease. Most of my cardigans are fitted enough that I only wear them over sleeveless tops, and I was thinking it would be nice to have something that could be worn over tops with sleeves. However, this pattern is designed to be closely fitted, so it was the wrong pattern to decide to make with a lot of positive ease.

• I didn’t bother to really check the waist shaping. I knew that it had a bit more shaping than I usually do, and also noticed that the hip measurement was smaller than the bust measurement. Neither of those worried me, because most of the Drops sweaters I’ve done have not been a problem with shaping. However, this pattern has much more severe waist shaping than the others. And though I’ve done some with smaller hip circumference, they were shorter, and worked out nicely so that I didn’t get any flaring at the hip. But this one is longer, and there’s too much junk in the trunk, so it definitely had to stretch to fit.

• My gauge changed. I started with the front left piece, and it ended up being smaller than I expected from my gauge swatch. But, since I had positive ease anyway, I figured it would probably still work out, so I knit the front right piece. Surprise! It turned out quite a bit larger, and more what I expected from the gauge swatch. At that point, I figured the best thing was to just knit the back, and then I could reknit one of the fronts to match if needed. But since the back matched the larger front piece, and the entire thing was too big, there wasn’t much to be done.

• I suspect the pattern may simply be a bit large at the top anyway, unless you are a Norwegian model with nice broad shoulders. Another person mentioned that there was a lot of excess fabric, and on some of the other projects, it looked like it was, even though they didn’t say anything about it. The ones that looked like they fit well had been modified, but there were no specifics about the modifications. Even on the pattern model, it’s worn with the bottom buttons open, and you can see that there is some extra fabric in front of the armhole.

So what am I doing differently? I decided I’d try to knit it to match my Basic Black cardigan, which is of similar shape and fits well. I’ll use the original pattern’s decreases for the front neck, because it’s a slimmer v-neck than Basic Black, and I like it better.

12-30-2011 - Post from old blog

Yes, it’s been done for nearly a month, and I’ve worn it a few times… but I just didn’t the a chance to get a photo. At least I’m getting it done before the end of the year (barely).

Modifications: After knitting the entire body and setting in the sleeves, I decided the fit and shaping just weren’t right – so I completely ripped it out (except for the sleeves) and started over, using my Basic Black cardigan as a template. The neck shaping, ruffle, and sleeves were all knit as per the pattern. Put buttons all the way down instead of just three at the top.

I’m really happy with how it finally turned out. The yarn was a good choice for the pattern. The ruffle was fun to knit, but it was A LOT of stitches.