That particular sleeve cap has been knit three times. Once, it was too long by three inches; I frogged and reknit with more frequent decreases. The second time, I lay sleeve #2 on top of sleeve #1, and found that when I reknit sleeve #1, I forgot the gently sloping decreases near the top, the ones that come after the now-more-frequently-knit decreases. The third time, well, you see the evidence. I am going to have to rip out these set-in sleeves (yes, I did both of them), rip back their caps and reknit a third time for sleeve #1 and a second time for sleeve #2.
I am having a hard time getting motivated to do that today. Frankly, I'm sick of knitting unsuccessful projects. Did I mention I'm running out of yarn for this sweater? My handspun, handdyed yarn? Sigh...I don't know why I should be running out of yarn to knit the collar, just because I neither measured nor weighed the yarn before I dyed it. [I believe it's called tempting fate. Apparently, I like to live dangerously. Also, I couldn't fit any more yarn in my dyepot.] Fortunately, the collar is double-sided; you knit a wide rectangle, fold it in half lengthwise, and sew the cast-on and bound-off edges to the sides of the square collar opening. I do have enough yarn for the front side of the collar and have, in fact, knit the front side. My friend Pat, with whom I was knitting most of Friday, gave me some Bartlett-type yarn to do the back of the collar if need be; I'm using it to seam with and waiting to see what happens with the sleeve caps. Oh Fashion Police, can we bring back dropped-sleeve sweaters?
ETA: I was knitting yesterday with That Sue and her brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Elaine. Chris snapped these photos of me and just sent them to me. You see what I mean about that sleeve cap, don't you?
8 comments :
That last picture says it all. Not the one with your face, the one with the sleeve cap, silly. Now I understand. *sigh*
Maybe that's why I knit sox.
Mmmm, New York Super Fudge Chunk. That's my favorite.
I've given up on sleeve caps, particularly since I'm designing most of my sweaters these days and don't use software to do it, just my brain, pencil and notepad, and a calculator.
And when I'm knitting something with my own handspun, I tend to design it as knit top-down, just in case there is a yarn shortage.
On the plus side, the yarn left from re-knitting the sleevecaps may be enough to finish the collar...
So many ways a fitted sleeve can go wrong! That was one nice thing about the 80s and all those oversize drop shoulder sweaters.
Knitting is always a crap shoot. I hope you can save the sweater. It looks like lovely yarn!
You are really cute when you are grumpy!
Okay, I have this same problem. Except that I've reknit the sleeve capS twice, not thrice. They still look like shoulder pads are needed, but I'm not going there. What I think I'm gonna do, is take off the sleeves and try to knit them from the top down, a la Barbara Walker, but without the benefit of her Knitting From the Top instructions because I don't have the book. I think I understand the theory, though.
I feel your pain, is what I'm trying to say! And also, that knitting a sweater a month might be just enough experience to conquer those sleeve caps once and for all!
You clearly have the right idea: don't even think about finishing sweaters without ice cream! It's good to have that handy if you happen to need mood improvement.
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