So I’m having a great time with my shrug – mixing fibers – feels like free form knitting. This is knit in all one piece cuff to cuff. As I get closer to finishing the “back” I’m just having that feeling that something isnt making sense. Its beautiful but its just not looking like the diagram.
I decided to go right to the source and email Jane Thornley with my need for clarification. Can I just say that not only was she quick to respond, but she was really supportive and helpful.
I sent Jane this photo for diagnosis:
Turns out that I dont have enough width – therefore I didnt make enough increases which is why the sleeve looks funny. I’d rant about my inability to properly measure width but I’ve already kicked myself over and over for this – stupid really stretchy knitting! Jane explained this wasnt catostrophic or anything – I just needed to work around it. I particularly love the part that says that it looks like I have about 23 inches between the two dark purple stripes so I can make that my back – ok I’m impressed – there was exactly 23 inches between the stripes.
So the plan is to rip back to the stripe on one side and from the cuff up to the first stripe. Then start both sleeves and space my decreases along the 18 inches I need for the sleeves. I’ve never had to rip from the cuff up – I know I’ve had discussions with people about how impossible it was, but the cuff was knit in art yarns silk and I really didnt want to lose it. So I sat down at the dining room table and snipped to start unraveling the cuff. Not so easy – it was done with 2 yarns. I set out to save the silk and not worry about the glace. Talk about an excercise in patience…no lie it took 3 hours to pull out the cuff, and when I wound the little bit of art yarns silk I really wondered if it was worth it.
I then started on the task of ripping out the other yarns back to the stripe we decided marked the body – lets just say between trying to rip backwards, combined with all the crazy fibers this is made with I spent a futile hour and threw my hands up in the air. I ran a life line by the body stripe and pulled out my scissors. I then sat in utter terror for at least 20 minutes deciding if I could really take a scissors to this project. I built myself up – I have a lifeline; I can’t possibly finish it the way that it is; certainly this is better than ripping the whole thing and starting again…still…that little voice was screaming in horror as I started to snip threads. After the first 5 were cut I just gave it up and went at it to get the whole process over with. When I was done I immediately went to get the stitches back on the needles in hopes that the cold sweat would stop and I could breath again….phew…it did and I could.
sat in post trauma for about another 10 minutes and finally went about ripping the remnants of my sleeve the “normal” way – which of course took all of 5 minutes. I carefully wound each ball of each yarn and got myself re-organized.
I’m back to knitting, every row taking me further away from the terrifying fix and closer to finishing.
Shouldn’t be long now…stay tuned!