There is Joy

This is the sewing pattern I started with this time. I couldn't find the pattern for what I tore apart. I'm making the pink jacket on the left, but knit instead of sewn.

I frogged about half of the first sleeve after sewing it in and finding it too wide and too long. It now fits and is back in the jacket. The second sleeve is well started and I should finish it in the next week.

I'm so tired of the lack of progress on this project, but I'm too stubborn and too much a perfectionist to let it go, It either is going to fit or it is going in the trash. Luckily it seems it is \going to fit..I have enough sweaters that don't fit because of the weight loss. I haven't found them all, but most of the summer sweaters are suspect. It will take a few years to get everything reworked or replaced.

My kitchen is coming together. The walls and cabinets are painted and the doors are almost done. Some of then are hung, but there are still a few problems . Almost everything I am keeping is back in the cabinets. At least I can use the kitchen now. It should be finished in a few days. I really need to cook up a few pots of something for the freezer.

Back to the sweater knitting. I need to finish.

Sweater memories

Have you ever knit memories into something? Some times it's intentional and sometimes not. I have a sweater that reminds me of a trip I took. The layover between planes was longer than expected because of fog in San Francisco. The plane didn't leave Texas because it couldn't land in California. Someone asked if I was going to finish the sweater before the plane took off. As it turned out I did finish it.

I have another sweater finished on a Kentucky Derby weekend. I was so glad to have the sweater as it snowed in Kentucky that year, unexpected in early May.

The current sweater has memories of a book I have been reading, Gone With The Wind. I bought the book over 50 years ago, and it seems I never read it. I certainly don't remember a bit of the story. What I did remember must have been movie related, but I never saw the movie either. I just saw the publicity for it.

Knitting was fast and furious yesterday.. It was a slow day at work and I knit instead of sewing. Can't do that often! We have a sweater body and it fits me. Sleeves are started, but not much progress due to other activities. I'm hoping that the sleeves go smoothly. I measured the underarm length while wearing the body of the sweater. As often happens with sewing patterns, I had to shorten the sleeves 1".

Tomorrow, I will take photos of the original sewing patterns for both sweaters I've tried to use for this yarn.

Of cotton sweaters and frog ponds

The birthday socks were delivered, so I can show them now. These are for the daughter who has many Dr. Who items on her Etsy shop. She has stitch markers, earrings, necklaces and posters among other things. The socks seemed perfect. They represent a TARDIS box, which is what Dr. Who uses in his time travel.

I'm still battling with the cotton sweater. After frogging the back down to the armholes, I finished it in a size that fits me. I knit one side of the front and sewed it on. It's starting to look like I want, although the neck decreases didn't work out as originally figured. I knit the other side of the front and sewed that on. The button side was bigger, by about an inch. No wonder my decreases hadn't worked out the first time. What you see here was frogged to the armhole (sound familiar?) and reknit after finding I was running out of stitches near the shoulder.I an getting tired of this!

I pouted and pondered and when I went to knit night at the yarn store, I decided to try edging the sweater. I'm using a two stitch I-cord. Got home from the yarn store, and frogged the buttonhole side of the sweater until I had about an inch left. That was the part that matched. I'm moving my way back up again. By the way, the button is an antique mother-of-pearl button from my mother's button box.The color is perfect with the ecru cotton and there is a design inscribed on it so it's not monotonous.

Perhaps you are wondering how I could have so much trouble with following a pattern. the problem is that I took a sewing pattern for a jacket and put it on graph paper, using one square for each inch of pattern. I then got stitch and row gauge off the sweater I was dis-assembling and am trying to figure how many increases/decreases for each inch of shaping.The decreases from waist to neck would have worked out on the first front piece if there had enough stitches when I got to the waist.

There are times when I'm sure I am, crazy for continuing on this project. I wonder if there is bad luck in the yarn. This is the third sweater for the variegated yarn. Sweater #1, a long time ago, was poorly written pattern and the yarn didn't work. I had combined it with the ecru at that time. Version #2 was the result of a class with Lily Chin on color. The fabric is a three color seed stitch.After the class, I was able to pickup the country green that blends well with the other colors. I'm keeping the seed stitch fabric and I hope that the third time is a charm on the knitting. As I keep frogging, I wonder! The good point is that the fit will be good.