Monday, September 27, 2004

The Big Sack

This is the name of the sweater that I'm knitting for Rob. I'm part of the man-a-long over at Knit-o-Rama. I did have to wait until we were married to knit my beloved something. I don't care what you say...I wasn't risking it for anything. That damn curse. Curses are for real. Look at the Red Sox.

Could there be any more unattractive name for a sweater pattern? Who wants to wear a big sack? My husband. Of all the patterns I showed him (and there were a ton) this is the one he chose. It's a fun knit. However, my bossy-ness got the best of me.

I swatched and didn't get gauge. Rather than change my needles I decided to change the size I was knitting. I am knitting a large, ready to get a small sized sweater. My row gauge was also off. Now here comes the bossy part. I decided to adjust the pattern to meet my row gauge. It involved Excel Spreadsheets, hair being pulled out and all kinds of yelps. I triumphed. I was worried about the sleeves. The Big Sack is designed to have raglan sleeves. I figured if my row gauge is off, I need to adjust the rate at which I do the decreasing for the armholes. And on it went. There was some complicated ratio of decrease two stitches for every 2 rows and then every 4 rows or some retardedness. Notice the *was*. Yah, you guessed it, it didn't work.

Rob will just have to wear this (beware of flagrant product placement):



Bossiness is dangerous. Mind you, most of my wedding pictures include scenes of me bossing people around. Not pretty. With this project I was proud of myself for figuring it out. Adjusting the pattern to meet my needs. The end result? The sleeve shaping looked uneven and not so much raglan like. So much for that. I did learn that Raglan's need to be decreased EVENLY across a pattern. Fun lesson or lesion as I originally typed it. Uh-huh. Sure. Knitting is learning to recognize your limits and learning to accept defeat. And putting up with all the lesions.

But did I give up, nah. I ripped and I'm just following the pattern for the sleeve shaping. I finished the front this weekend and I'm a few inches short of the arm shaping on the back. I'm thinking that it'll be alright. It's a big sack for crying out loud. It's big and bulky...arm holes that are a bit shorter than the intended pattern shouldn't change the earth's orbit.

A few yarn details...I'm using Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair. I love the feel of the yarn. It's not itchy and very soft. However, there are quite a few spots of white along the yarn where the dye didn't penetrate. This is annoying. Knot annoying. Some of the strands get mighty thin in some places. I wonder how they'll hold up to the activity of a winter wear sweater.

Progress Pics:


3 Comments:

Blogger alison said...

Hey there! The big sack looks great (the knitted one, not so much the Home Depot one!). I love the yarn you're using. Wish I could find such a good excuse to splurge on some. :)

9/28/2004 2:07 PM  
Blogger Katie said...

Hey, looks great. i've been thinking of making one for my husband too. Have you seen the correction at http://www.bust.com/knithappens/oops.shtml?

Nice to see a fellow Browns fan (originally from Ohio), though 've grown into being a Pats fan too.

9/28/2004 2:54 PM  
Blogger Bookish Wendy said...

Thanks KLV. I had seen that errata a few months ago but had forgotten about it. As it turns out I don't have to worry about it. Because of gauge issues I'm making a bigger size and the errata is for the small/medium sizes.

The yarn is worth the cost!

9/29/2004 8:50 AM  

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