Friday 7 September 2012

Knit, frog, repeat

With hand knitted clothing being all the rage this year, my daughter agreed to me knitting her a sweater. It’s quite funny, I knitted one just like this back in the 80-ies, and maybe it will resurface when we finally clear out our house. It had different shades of blue and even came with leg warmers and was ever so warm and comfy and fashionable.

I used to be excellent at getting everything just right back in my knitting days, and I would draft intricate patterns and get a perfect fit each time. Maybe it’s all the quilting or maybe it’s my age, but I actually knitted a test sample to measure the gauge and measured my daughter so I could calculate the number of stitches needed and so on. It was all looking good,

the back was done in the blink of an eye. So were the sleeves. So was the front. Wait a minute, after finishing one side of the neck, there were too many stitches on the other side. Maybe I should count the stitches? Huh, 8 stitches too many? How did that happen?

So, I frogged (unraveled to you non-knitters) the whole front. Having knitted with two strands of yarn, there was no way I would waste time separating the different threads and ended up with one giant ball of yarn containing 4 skeins. It doesn’t look that big in the picture, but trust me, it was huge.

So, I started on the front, again,

and the front was done, again, in the blink of an eye and daughter stopped by for an impromptu fitting. Wait a minute, the sleeves were too short. How did that happen? Whatever it was that killed my knitting mojo this week, the cast off on both sleeves were frogged and the sleeves made longer.

I am almost afraid to start the next step which is assembling the pieces. Who knows what will happen. Thankfully I absolutely love knitting with this yarn – Mini alpaca from Sandnes garn – it’s ever so soft and wonderful and the two shades of beige look lovely.

And I am happy to say that the week ended in a rainbow of colours. There was an evening with my fabulous quilting friends, an evening with two fabulous colleagues of mine from way back, and an afternoon with fabulous grandson playing games and just being silly and even a fabulous rainbow in the sky.

Wishing you all a weekend filled with rainbows!

8 comments:

  1. Good story and funny too. Looking forward to seeing the finished sweater.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The wool does look fantastic. I am a non-knitter, but I wish I could knitt.
    Hope your daughter is recovering very well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alpaca yarn is so lovely to touch, no wonder you knitted the pieces in no time. The sweater will be like a hug from you to your daughter, helping her to recover. - When you knit some more, you'll soon know the right number of stitches again. The sweater to be looks wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was a knitted marathon... I can almost feel the despair. Glad you do not give up - the sweater is going to be lovely!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like your daughter is up and around... Hurray!

    I messed up on some mittens I was knitting last winter... tried to frog, but its a fuzzy yarn, and it won't come apart.

    Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have to be patient. Soon you will have the good knitting feelings back in your fingers. The yarn looks lovely. Good to hear that your daughter is on her feet again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOL, I am still laughing, you, not counting, say it ain't so. If I remember my Mom had a little counter she put on her needles to avoid this very thing. Alpaca, yum, so warm and soft for winter. Love the neutrals... xox

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh you have so much patience - it's a good thing you enjoy knitting so much. The wool does look lovely and I bet it'll turn out fabulously when it's finished.

    Love the rainbow photo - hope your week is good too :)

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.