Coltrane's Sweater

sweater
Originally uploaded by Frith.

Looks simple enough, right?

Ha! This sweater started (about 3 weeks ago) as a variation on the placket sweater in "Last-Minute Knitted Gifts." I was just going to change the colors around, use a different yarn with a different gauge, change the hem, change the raglan sleeve decrease style, change the stitch around the neck and on the placket, and add a hood. Mind you, I didn't go to the trouble of actually planning this out. I just thought I'd use the 3-month sweater cast-on amount with my thicker yarn, but follow the length for the 12-month sweater, and just tinker with the other stuff as I went along.

This lack of planning first got me into trouble on the second sleeve. I sort of spaced out and forgot to do some increases to match the first sleeve. Fine, rip back. Then I forgot to start the stripe on the second sleeve. Again, rip back. All well and good, but when I got mid-way through the neck placket, things looked decidedly off. It turned out I had accidently followed the smaller size, and was therefore (supposedly) off by two stitches. But it looked like far more than a two-stitch error. I went online and found that the pattern in the book was so royally messed up that they were offering an entirely new corrected PDF for download.

The moment of truth: rip back and re-do the placket, or go with the off-centered look? Yeah, off-centered look all the way. I was already working that look with the stripes on only one sleeve, so why not?

Fine, but this should have caused me to rethink my hood concept. Off I went on my merry way, using "The Sweater Workshop" to figure out how to create a hood. And I was nearly done with the darned thing when the thought occured to me that there was no way for the hood to stay up. Had the placket been in the center, I could have started the hood close enough to it that it would have worked. But off-centered with my one button leaving the neck open? No way. So the hood had to go. Another day, another sweater.

Obviously I still have to weave in some ends, but the sweater is pretty much done and is now blocking.

At least the hood provided an opportunity for a little lesson yesterday. I was teaching someone how to knit, and when I do that, I always like to unravel something so that they can see how knitting is just loops inside of loops -- no great mystery and nothing to be afraid of.

I casted on for the back of my corset sweater (finally) I really should re-work flat patterns to be in the round more often. I hate feeling like I'm doing the same exact thing twice. But I want to wear this sweater, which won't happen without the darned back, of course.

This also means I should probably start another non-cotton project to relax my hands. The little feathery scarf thing isn't quite relaxing enough (yarn is too thin). I'll have to give this some thought. Hopefully my Knitpicks yarn will come soon, and I can start one of the little Scarf Style projects. I know many "serious" knitters look down on scarves. But I love to knit them and wear them.