I made it! Fourth time lucky, is that even a thing? I fulfilled my personal Me Made May 2018 challenge. It was tough but worth it in the end...
The story...
I made a WATG sweater last year out of the most precious cotton yarn - so soft and sumptuous. I wore it in St. Tropez, it was good to have it on the breezy boat trip...
BUT, this is me wearing it when it was fresh and new. I had purposely made the sleeves a little longer because that is how I like them but as the Summer nights lengthened so did my sleeves.
The weight of the yarn made them longer and longer until I eventually stopped wearing it because I couldn't chop tomatoes without the cuffs mopping up the juices off the chopping board! I did what I always do in these situations - I hid it under the bed.
On my most recent seasonal wardrobe swap over it peeped out from the drawer and made me feel more than a little guilty. I decided to re knit the sleeves, after all I liked the body and the high quality yarn.
Firstly I tried a quick fix. I re knit a sleeve with unravelled yarn however the wobbly yarn made for the most appalling tension.
I went through the process of unravelling both sleeves, stretching and washing the yarn in skeins ready to start over again. I knit a sleeve. Grr! it was still wrong. I had not done enough decreases to make the sleeves narrow enough and then ran out of yarn resulting in another wide, baggy, useless sleeve which was now too short.
I unpicked, unravelled, washed, stretched and tried again another time.
This time I really was like a dog with a bone. The left sleeve was now on its fourth incarnation. I was so pleased when it was finished not just because the torture was over but it is back to being the summer knit I originally wanted. It may not look too different to you but it is so much lighter in the sleeves length and width.
Did I ever mention I am a capricorn? Stubborn as a goat me. Thanks Me Made May, a great motivator to use the worlds resources wisely.
Jo xxx
I’m so impressed that you kept going on this! Definitely worth it, it looks great and hopefully you can continue to get lots of wear out of it.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great effort Jo! It was well worth it and I hope you get much use of this versatile jumper over the summer. Cotton is a difficult material for knitted garments, well done for not letting it defeat you. The only cotton top I ever knitted very quickly moved into the drawer of shame... Me made May intimidates me, I would feel immensely stressed about participating. I am such a chicken! xx
ReplyDeleteP.S. stitching on my binding on the crazy quilt :-) three more sides to go.
It looks really good again now. The colour is gorgeous and the fit is lovely. It's so impressive you kept going. I know after the second attempt if you were me it would have gotten dumped in a bag for months if not years.
ReplyDeleteA job well done indeed, you certainly have patience. I am impressed at how you can work back and re use the yarn without any waste. x
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t look any different but then look more closely and you can see the improved sleeve design. Clever girl and well done. Still looks lovely on too.
ReplyDeleteIt looks so good, Jo. I love the color of it. I think it really suits you, something about your hair, maybe. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteYour determination won the day. Well worth the effort as it is a great jumper.
ReplyDeleteWell done Jo! I applaud your persistence and patience. I am glad I am not the only one to throw misbehaving knits under the bed.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic top! I'm so impressed with your perseverance, it really paid off xxx
ReplyDelete