The Great Frogging.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009I’ve frogged the sweater. Again. Because I couldn’t figure out how to properly do the lace decreases. Sure I just winged it, but it was still coming out all funky and weird and I couldn’t understand what was going on. It looked okay, from the front or the back. But the sides were… well… not so cute.
I went to Ravelry and asked on the technique board what to do. I got a couple of responses pretty quickly, one of which pointed me toward a KAL (knit-a-long, for all you non-knitters) for the pattern. And then I found out that when you add the total number of stitches to the back to the total number of stitches to the front, I should also have subtracted the selvage stitches on what would have been the sides since I decided to work the sweater in the round. I didn’t do this.
Being the over perfectionist that I am, I contemplated whether or not start over again… or just live with it. I mean, who’s going to get that close to my sides to count the stitches anyway? Probably no one. Except me. I’d know it was there. I’d know that it was all effed up and I didn’t want to make a quality piece of clothing for myself and ended up with a mostly perfect but not completely perfect garment.
I pulled the circular needle out and took a deep breath. I knew exactly what was coming next and it wasn’t going to be pretty. The frogging also meant that I would start over. From scratch. And re-cake the yarn into a lovely center-pull ball, and I started over.
Although before all of this, after pulling the needle from the piece, I tried it on. When working this pattern you start from the bottom and work your way up, so I pulled it over my head and positioned it on my hips somewhere where it should sit. And it was too big. Way. way too big.
The defining factor for this pattern is “bust size”. So the size of your garment is depended on the circumference of the bust. I should have known that this might cause problems. I’m a bigger girl, sure. I’m pudgy around the middle and a little more in the front, but when it comes to “bust circumference” I’m tipping the scales. I’m much larger than most people in my height category. So when I put my lovely 7.5 inches of sweater around me, it was too big.
This thing was supposed to be blocked (which means it stretches some). No way. I didn’t want a tent to wear. I wanted something a little form fitting that was snug-ish. This is not a “keep warm” sweater, but more something you throw on over a tank top, or something. I wanted it to look girlie, like it does on the girl in all the pictures.
So I dropped a size. I probably should have dropped 2 considering how big it really was around my hips, but I’m afraid that it’s going to look silly if I do that.
I cast on again and am starting over. In the round. Minus the selvage stitches. And in a smaller size.
This frogging was actually not the frustrating and annoying one the last one was, because I found out at 7.5 inches that it was the wrong size. I can’t imagine how upset I’d have been if I were nearly finished only to find out it was the wrong size. There’s a chance I might have made it in the paper.
Local woman breathes fire and terrorizes small California town; sweater was wrong size.
This time, it better be right.