Thursday, April 27, 2006

Gauge, Row, No

I'm good at math. I'm a scientist. I have a Master's degree in Landscape Design and six years towards a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I get paid to apply my considerable intellect, training, and experience to the protection of the rare species of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Oh, stop snickering, I do so do that.) Not only am I good at math, I'm good at envisioning three-dimensional stuff. Like how the back of a knitted jacket with raglan sleeves will nestle nicely up against the raglan-sleeved front of the jacket.

That said, explain this:
For the numerically challenged amongst you (and those who get dizzy trying to read a blurry photo with an upside-down tape measure), here are the cold bare facts. Inches along the raglan of the front: 14.5. Inches along the raglan of the back: 16, and that's before I finish all the rows I'm supposed to. Even though I figured out that, for this pattern, I should be knitting a size 41 for horizontal purposes and size 37 for vertical purposes (yes, I'm short and square. Don't rub it in right now) and I took all that into account.

Good thing I like frogs.
So now I have two choices as I see it. I could frog back to the marker, knit the fold row, and make the hem for the back of the neck. This should result in raglans that match, but a wider neck opening than the designer really had in mind.

Or I could frog all the way back (that's 16", remember) to the start of the raglan, use my alleged math skills to figure out a new rate of decrease for the raglan, such that I'd end up with both the correct raglan length and the correct neck-opening width, and knit half the back over again. Did I mention that this yarn, although lovely and soft, gets a bit put out by being frogged and begins to look bedraggled when re-knit? Heh. I suppose then we'd match. Besides, if I never get around to getting my hair cut, no one will see that the top of the back of this jacket looks like a frog has been muddling with it. Although, since somehow I have ended up with about two and a half extra balls of yarn (despite, of course, having carefully bought just enough of this expensive stuff), I could always use a new ball. And then knit up the extra into a cute striped, felted bag. Not that I carry a bag, other than for my knitting, but it's a thought.

Or I could tuck this away in the deep dark closet of UFOs and go buy more yarn. Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary party and sale at my lovely LYS, Emily's Needlework, in Athol, MA, and this weekend is the 45%- and 50%-off closing sale, alas, at Knitter's Paradise in Worcester, MA.

Like there's really a choice there.

6 comments :

Sharon in Ireland/NZ said...

Love the little frog in your pic but I know what it means. Oh, the pain of frogging. Not sure what to recommend to you. A little time out might help. Do you have another project you could work on in the meantime?

Jerry & Maxy said...

I am of no help.

I love the colorway. And you are still very clever.

Good luck!

Katy said...

Oh no. Can you loosely baste it all together and see how it would look with a wider neck opening? Frogging would be so, so sad.
And when I scanned down your blog, I realized that I saw you in that red coat at Stephanie's talk...AND that I was the person with the tweedy sunrise jacket at Webs! Small world. (AND my husband works for MA DEP in Spfd.)

Veronica said...

Hmmm - I vote for pinning the fronts to the back and seeing is you can make it work BEFORE frogging. I have to say, this jacket was really unusual to knit - i was constantly thinking the raglans were too long. I also thought the sleeves were too long. But in the end - all was good and no frogging was required. (that said, I did use the specified yarn and my gauge was almost spot-on)

knitannie said...

I say frog back to the fold line and have a wider neck opening. It will look good. As long as it's not so wide it falls off your shoulders. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Anonymous said...

I vote for the quick neck fix, you can always overlap the fronts more to adjust for the wider neck. that's why I like this pattern, the fronts are so adjustable depending on where you put the buttons.