Friday, March 30, 2007

It all seemed so happy

Oh, last Sunday! My parents had just left me; the sunshine was beaming in through my bedroom window; I had no work to do, and Ivy had just been knitted up. All she wanted was careful, neat sewing, and I was so excited about how clever this pattern is, how scrupulous in its details, that I was prepared to spend hours getting the seaming elegant and strong.

I seamed the shoulders. I seamed an arm. I tried it on. It billowed, it blew, it looked handmade and lumpy. I checked the other arm, and found that somehow, I had gone way off gauge, and the arm was 5 inches wider across at the shoulder than it should have been. It didn't look puff-sleeved; it just looked crap.
bah, ivy, bah!
So, yeah. There was nothing for it. I ripped the shoulders back. I love that pattern so much, and I won't have it looking lumpy and sad, you hear me? I won't! But I have this awful crashdown now; I was so looking forward to the finishing line, and to showing off a truly elegant handknit garment. I think the thing that I find most discouraging is that I don't really know why the sleeves went so horribly wrong; I couldn't make either one add up to the pattern, both went way too wide, and yet I got gauge, so I have little real hope of being able to fix it. I mean, I'm trying, but the yarn is a mess now it's ripped and has a different gauge, and in short, I have lost the love. This is a shame, because it was going to be so pretty. I will try harder, I will!

Here, have some Happy Colourdy Spring Photos instead, yes?

spring is sprung

Look, bright green new spring sandals, and sunny forgetmenots to dance on!

one skein of joy

And this, this is an impulse internet purchase: those colours. Could you have resisted? Now really, could you? I'm sighing and lusting and stroking it, and its dizzying kaleidoscope is taking my mind quite away from the sad Ivy mess.

It's sock yarn, really, 100 grammes (or 280 metres) of it, and of course it would make glorious socks, but I think I don't want it for zany socks. I am torn between making it into a One Skein Wonder shrug, and a very plain openwork shawl. What can you do with 280 metres of fingering weight? Tell!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, no! Ripping things back and wrestling with patterns are two of my least favourite things. I hope you manage to fix it.

That sock yarn on the other hand! Wow! I made a similar (well: several, oh the shame!) purchase recently for some brightly coloured sock yarn. I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

Knits Must said...

Hi

what size is your Ivy? I'm almost finished sewing up and my sleeves are fine (I made the 4th size). But this line in the sleeve pattern looks a bit strange to me
"Repeat these 2 rows 13[18, 19, 16, 22, 23, 22] times more. 47[35, 35, 51, 37, 37, 43] sts."

I'd usually expect the numbers for each size to be almost the same or in a fairly regular increasing sequence. But this list isn't like that.

Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

Oh noes!

Pattern disaster. I think I remember you hating maths while drinking in the GBS. If your hatred of maths is still that strong, I will volunteer my figuring brain to assist, as I would hate to see such sparkily joy remain unfinished. (ask Lisa for my email address).

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about the Ivy! But just looking at the happy spring feet must make you feel better - and think: you own those lovely feet :)