The Impatient Knitter

Does anyone remember this satanic evilness? It is the long-ago abandoned Moonlight Sonata Shawl project in Fleece Artist Goldiehair and it has now to my deepest relief, been frogged and repurposed for an alternative project.

I have been trying to design some patterns recently and after a few false starts, some really bad maths, lots of crossed out and re-written notes, several scribbly charts, a lot of ripping-out and some serious neck-ache, I need a break from all the fannyarsing around that designing requires. Knitwear designers? Respect. One day maybe I can count myself amongst you, but it is not on this day!!

After binding off a project that’s taken me ages to do, I was in the mood to immediately get something else onto my needles. I specifically wasn’t in the mood for thinking too hard about exactly what. And I really, really, really wasn’t in the mood to swatch for gauge.

After a very focussed search for something quite fitted yet plain and with the smallest possible amount of seaming, I discovered the chic knits website and this understated and brilliant Ribbed Pullover thereon. The pattern is perfect for my purposes; it is simple but elegant, offers a range of neckline options and will provide me with a warm and neatly constructed sweater. I do not have to do any calculations in order to make this garment as someone else has done that all already for me (hurrah!) and I do not have to agonise over yarn choices because I already have the yarn (double hurrah!)

So I spent a few happy hours going round and round the 176 stitches I had cast on after a very cursory glance over the pattern. I should say at this point that I always take full responsibility for the consquences of my own foolishness; you will never ever find me emailing a pattern designer to give them a hard time viz: my inability to count, to read properly or to consult any pattern with the due respect and attention it deserves: I know how bad I am. So it is entirely my fault that I started the sweater in the smallest size. Cheerfully convincing myself that if it doesn’t fit I will just have to lose more weight, I continued until sense kicked in and I realised I really ought to check out the size before going ahead. Especially since Fleece Artist Goldiehair is impossible to rip out.

I decided to put the whole thing onto a bit of waste yarn and try it on over my head, around the biggest part of my hips, which is where this first ribbing section will ultimately fit.

Luckily, when I tried the first inch of ribbing on in this way, it seems to fit well even over a dress and a t-shirt. I want this sweater to be wearable either over a thin layer or right next to my skin as a super warm underlayer… and I want it to cling to me and not be loose. Thus I think it is OK that that at this stage it seems to hug to me nicely, like a glove. The cast-on row is a little tight; I am aware of it being pulled tight when I wear it and it has no further stretch. Has anyone else ever had this with a long-tail cast on at the bottom of a sweater? Will it drive me insane? Should I throw this section of knitting away and start again with a better style of cast on or in anyone else’s opinion will the tight cast on row cease to irritate me once the rest of the knitted wonderment is completed?

I am extremely happy to have knit an inch into this sweater and to have checked that it will fit, without having to actually make a gauge swatch. This joy will immediately dissipate if I discover that in fact the whole project is doomed by the tight cast-on row. But my glee is generally quite a resilient resource, so please pipe up if you think I should rip the whole thing out and I will seize it from my needles and fling it onto the fire.

That’s right: I said fire. In other happy news, we got the chimney swept today and I have spent the afternoon warmed by logs we cut last summer. An open fire is a truly wonderful thing.

Joey totally agrees.

I think I need to drink less tea… and knit more sweater.

Happy times.

Thanks for comments on posters; I think I will work on some new designs based on clean-lines, a bold use of colour, and great typefaces.

8 Responses to The Impatient Knitter

  1. Pingback: The Domestic Soundscape » Blog Archive » The Summer Wardrobe/what to knit?

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