Have you ever had cursed yarn?
I bought some mint wool/cotton yarn last summer to make this:
I got about ¾ of the way up the back and realized how bad this would look on me. So I started a basic cardigan, then decided I didn’t like that either. So then I thought I would make a tank I made once before. Can’t go wrong with that right? WRONG. The tank had some seed stitch at the hem and at the neckline. The seed stitch was great at the hem but somehow grew at the neckline. Now I know what you are thinking…a) was the stitch count off at the neckline? No, I double and triple checked it; b) Did you remember to switch to smaller needles? Not only did I remember, but after I saw that all three pieces (it buttons up the back) were larger at the neckline, I ripped and redid and they were still too big. Why at this point I didn’t just decrease the number of stitches, I don’t know. Instead, in a fit of frustration, I stuffed it into the back of my knitting drawer. Until I saw this:
It was time to ripe the tank and cast on for Julia. How could I not fall in love? As I approached the end of the garter stitch I realized that the yoke as pictured would only look good on a few people, and I was not one of them. Thinking I was so smart I decided to drop the line so it would look like a empire line. Sounds good right? That meant I would have to start the diagonal rib earlier, but that shouldn't be a biggie, right? So I charted out the rib and made sure to have it change directions, not only at the center back, but at the “side seams” as well. Finally, I arrived at the point where to split the body for the fronts and back. So, being the lazy finished that I am, I thought to myself, why not knit this as a yoke sweater so you don’t have to sew up the raglan seams? Genius...or so I thought. And, even though this is where my problem started I am glad I did this way. I would have hated to have knit the whole sweater, sew together and then see my issue. (I wish I had a picture to show you, but the camera is at work.) Anyway, I HATE what the diagonal rib is doing at the raglan sleeves. They are meeting at a weird angle. UGH! Plus as I laid it out I noticed that the proportion of the rib to the garter stitch was going to be opposite of how Debbie Bliss had designed it. There would be more rib than garter.
So here are my questions. Should I a) keep knitting, hope the angle works itself out and also hope I have enough yarn to rip out the cast on edge and knit it down farther, b) rip to the empire line, switch to something simpler (like seed stitch) and go from there again hoping I have yarn left over to knit down c) rip the whole thing and start as a top down raglan (duh, why make it easy) using a seed stitch and then I can knit till I run out of yarn or d) rip the whole thing and burn the yarn. Really I don’t think I would want to take the yarn to a swap. What if the curse is beyond me? Why would I want to do that to another knitter?
In the meantime, I cast on for some socks. Can’t go wrong with socks. I even thought this could be a good chance to do some cables again. I thought Eunny’s Bayerische socks would be nice.
Of course the yarn I had in my stash splits like crazy. Have you ever tried to cable a sock without a cable needle on size 0 needles that splits? Let me warn you, don’t. Make sure your yarn is nice and smooth and doesn’t split. So I guess that goes back into the stash for the time being anyway.
So much for getting lots of knitting done this week. What should I try next?
