Sweater Disaster, Sweater Success

Tragedy hit my knitting over the weekend. Specifically, my Rhinebeck sweater.

I took a risk and wet blocked my Cottage Garden late last week. Pre-blocking it fit me perfect. When I washed and blocked it, I was worried the silk in the yarn would stretch and make it too big. I tried to sort of squish it together when I laid it out, but apparently that didn’t help. It finally dried Saturday and it was way too big on me. The sleeves hung well past my fingertips and the body came to about mid-thigh. After a lot of thought, I decided to throw it in the washer in warm water for about 10 minutes, thinking it would felt just a little and shrink up enough to be worn. Well… after 10 mins when I checked on it, it was completely felted. The yarn is a 50% wool/50% silk single and I’ve had yarn that is 100% wool take WAY LONGER then 10 mins with HOT water to felt, so I really didn’t expect this outcome. I thought “maybe I can stretch it out and it will still fit!” Yeah… no such luck. It’s small enough to fit a child or possibly my youngest sister, who’s rather petite. I suppose all is not lost if it does fit her, but I’m still rather heartbroken that my Rhinebeck sweater is completely ruined. 😦

My Camber sweater on the left (fits very well) and Cottage garden on the right

Sadly, I don’t even have any pictures of me wearing it pre-blocking, but as you can see above, it’s definitely too small for me to wear. While it was still wet, I put it on and tried my best to stretch it. I did get it on, but the armholes were too tight and even if I was able to stretch it, I doubt I’d be able to get it the size I needed. Not sure if I’d knit another one to replace it at some point. I think the pain of ruining this one is still too fresh to tell.

In a fit of crazy and after the loss of my Rhinebeck sweater, I cast on for the Climbing Vines Pullover with Cascade 220 Heathers in a deep red color. I’m almost done with the back piece. I have NO idea if I’ll finish in time, but hey… I can try right?? Hahahaha

On the plus side, I did finish Iced last Monday, blocked it last week, and it fits quite well! It still need buttons, but I haven’t found any yet, so I’ve been using a DPN to hold it closed until I find some.

Iced – Closed Fronts

Pattern: Iced (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: September 15, 2010
Completed: October 4, 2010
Yarn: Universal Yarns Deluxe Chunky, 5.5 skeins in Cappucino
Needles: US 11 bamboo circular needle
Notes: I did make some modifications to this pattern. Instead of knitting it a few inches larger then my bust size, I picked the size closest to my bust measurement so there was no ease (for me this was the 42.5″ size). This gave me a more fitted sweater, which was exactly what I wanted. The other thing I did was modify the collar. In looking at the notes on other people’s project pages in Ravelry, I noticed that many people mentioned being displeased with how the collar hung lower then the body of the sweater. To counteract any hanging/sagging the collar may do, I slipped the first stitch of each row, then when I picked up the collar, I picked up one stitch in each of the slipped edge stitches instead of the 3 stitches for every 4 rows the pattern called for. This made it look like the collar was bunched up before I blocked it, but it worked great for keeping it from hanging lower then the body and is even with the edge of the sweater. The last change I made was to give it long sleeves and adding more sleeve decreases. For the 42.5″ size, you only decrease a total of 4 stitches, which leaves some very wide sleeves when it’s done. To make long sleeves that weren’t really wide, after the last pattern decrease row, I k 8 rows, then worked the decrease row. Worked “new” decrease repeat 1 more time, then knit 8 rows, worked decrease row in purl (p1, p2tog, p to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1), worked until garter stitch cuff measured 2″ to match garter stitch edge of body. Long sleeves measured 16″ from where the underarm stitches were picked up.

Iced – Open Fronts

Iced – Back

A few days after finishing Iced, I suddenly had the urge to finish the Maelstrom socks that had been hanging out on the needles for far too long. I picked them back up Saturday and by Sunday, the second sock had been completed. It felt good to get them done and off the needles and I like how they turned out.

Maelstrom Socks

Pattern: Maelstrom (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 23, 2010
Completed: October 10, 2010
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, 1 skein Ruby River
Needles: US 1 Knit Picks circular needle
Notes: No modifications. I followed the pattern exactly, including the number of repeats on the leg. I like short socks, but I can definitely see adding more repeats if you like longer socks. They fit really well and hug my feet. Love them!

Maelstrom – Leg

Maelstrom – Foot

I ended up frogging Xeriscape, but haven’t cast on anything new with that yarn yet. I have some other ideas of yarns in my stash that I might use for Xeriscape or I may pick up something at Rhinebeck for it. Since I frogged that scarf, I started another! The pattern is Riverwalk from the same designer, Mary-Heather Cogar. I’m using Malabrigo Bulky in Butter. This yarn is lovely and soft to work with and it’s going to make a great scarf! The pattern has been a lot of fun to knit (I can hardly put it down) and I’m nearly finished with it.

Riverwalk

Off to keep working on my sweater in an attempt to finish it by this Saturday!