the blue blog archives: *!@^$%!

No pictures of elizabeth today, since I'm ripping out the neck. After washing, the whole sweater stretched out including the already-loose neck. I'm going to try - calmly - to rip out the neck and knit it a bit smaller, adding decreases in the two rows of garter stitch before and after the diamond pattern. Here's a picture of the edge pattern so you can see where I'll have to be adding decreases. I can't believe that I'm back to ripping. The whole sweater has become too large again and there are still those #@*^! stains. What is the point? Someone remind me.

In fact, there's altogether way too much ripping going on here. Last night, after finishing the back of the second giranimals sweater I had to rip it back to the armholes because I messed up the initial decreases and then after reknitting had to rip it out again because I had measured the length from the cast on edge and not from the end of the ribbing and it was too short. I am so tired of ripping!

posted by alison at 8:10 am | in elizabeth III , giranimals

Comments

Hi Alison, you're almost there, and your sweater will be beautiful! Don't forget about drink+knitting=can be good. Just to throw another idea at you, Maggie Righetti talks about replacing some stained yarn in her sweater, not by ripping back, but by going to the spot and directly taking it out and then reknitting it, sort of like adding an afterthought pocket. It's in her book, Knitting in Plain English, p 158, What to do About Bad Yarn.

Posted by: Leigh at February 18, 2003 9:34 AM

oh no!! sounds like a bad knitting night! stay calm, have a few drinks, look thru your gallery at all the other neat stuff you have done... and then have a few more drinks... and give yourself a day off... and then you will be rarin' (sp?) to go once more! it will be beautiful when it's done and i'm sure one day you'll be wearing it and some stranger will come up to you on the street and say "my that is the most lovely sweater i've ever seen, do you mind if i ask where you bought it?" and you'll say "bought it? hello, i made this beautiful thing!" and they'll be like "holy toledo!"

Posted by: carolyn at February 18, 2003 10:16 AM

Oh Alison, I do feel for you. What a drag :(

Posted by: kathy at February 18, 2003 11:45 AM

Hi Alison, I enjoy reading your blog and I think your knitting-results are very beautiful. So I would like to help with the stain-problem. Can you get somethimg what we call "Gallseife" ? It is soap mixed with gall, contains no bleach and you can use it even for woolen garments.I hope it works...

Posted by: inga at February 18, 2003 12:50 PM

I admire your tenacity! You'll get there and it'll be lovely and whenever you wear the sweater, you'll think of all the FUN you had in knitting it. Hmmmmmm. Are you SURE you want to finish it?! (teehee) Remember, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger . . . or at least a more knowledgeable knitter. You do deserve a nice glass of wine this evening, don't you think?

Posted by: kerstin at February 18, 2003 12:57 PM

I did as much ripping as knitting last night on my Kureyon pullover (haven't blogged about it recently). And that's a sweater that has no shaping! Having to rip can be discouraging but it's also part of the process. Please give yourself permission to take a break from the recently ripped projects. Sometimes just taking a day or two off can help.

Posted by: Melissa at February 18, 2003 12:59 PM

I sympathize, oh believe me how I sympathize. (I once ripped out a cabled sleeveless top knit in GGH Goa so many times - I lose count, but I think it was about 15 - that I had to recycle the yarn.) Lots of people would have stuck the project in a closet and tried to forget about it, but you haven't. I really admire your perseverance! The ripping will have its rewards, believe me :-)

(Oh, and I love Carolyn's sage advice! Tee hee.)

Posted by: Becky at February 18, 2003 4:03 PM

Can you just knit the neckline on a smaller needle to tighten it up?

Posted by: Charlotte at February 18, 2003 6:20 PM

Alison, you've gotten a lot of good advice. I don't have anything to add but my good wishes. I hope that whatever route you take leads you to a good outcome.

Posted by: michelle at February 18, 2003 8:46 PM