Good Morning Everyone!
So the saga continues, I keep muttering under my breath, "Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect" which is total bullshit since everyone knows there's no such thing as "perfect" knitting. I've pulled out and started my Tegna, AGAIN! This time after 340 stitches successfully joined in the round with 7 rows of lacework completed, OMG, UGH!!!! I did hear my Mimi reminding me that anything worth doing is worth doing right, and if I wanted this top to fit, it had to come out. I was happily knitting along on Friday night, Zooming with Wanda and Kathleen, laughing away and making our plans for Wanda's visit in July for the yarn haul. I couldn't help but notice that the bottom of my sweater looked huge, really huge. My desire for denial was put to rest when I held it up to the screen and asked them if it looked too big. Of course they said, "No, it's suppose to have 5-10" of positive ease, it's boxy and loose, it's fine." The beauty of girlfriends is their ability to reassure and float down the river of denial right along with you, drink in hand. So I continue knitting away, believing them, they did tell me exactly what I wanted to hear.
Nothing like looking at the same situation with a fresh set of eyes, without alcohol involved, reality begins to set in. First of all, I decide the gauge simply cannot be right, the lacework is loose, which for a tight knitter like me is my kryptonite. Before you judge, I did do a swatch, 2 of them, but I'm not so convinced I know how to measure, my Tegna is the proof. My need to be right could only be satisfied by pulling out the needles and measuring the circumference of my sweater. I took a deep breath, carefully extracting the needles, grabbed a tape measure, it's 60" around!! I consult my trusty pattern only to see that according to the diagram it should actually be 62", I'm trying to put by head around this. I "try" it on, it looks like a hula hoop, there is no way in hell this is going to ever look good. Well maybe if I were my exercising "YouTube" idol Angie who is 6' tall and maybe 120lbs could I pull it off, but I really wasn't feeling it. I made the executive decision to go down 2 needle sizes and make it one size smaller. I painstakingly cast on 300 stitches, miraculously joined it WITHOUT twisting and have completed 7 rows of lacework, stay tuned...
On a more positive note, my Carden tank top is finished and FITS!!! It is super cute and hopefully sometime soon it will be warm enough to wear without a turtleneck underneath. The timing is perfect too because I received a wonderful package from Andra yesterday, YARN SAMPLES for Fall/Winter 2021-22, can you believe it? I know it may seem early, since Spring has barely shown up yet, but in the world of retail, we're already decorating for Christmas lol...Wait until you see the beautiful new yarns and patterns, I seriously can't knit fast enough. I can't decide which one to cast on first, probably Lucca, it's Cashmere and Cotton or maybe Topaz a lovely wool, alpaca and nylon blend, then there's Remix Chunky which is screaming at me to knit another Il Grande Favorito. Wait until you see the Ariel Color, the Fryda cardigan needs to become part of my wardrobe. I'll be bringing them tomorrow night to Stitch and Bitch which unfortunately looks like it will be via Zoom, but you never know....
My Malabrigo order should be here this week, Carrie has already remerchandised the entire shop in her head to make room for the 20 bags that are coming. I also have those adorable "yarn" bouquets all packaged up and ready for Mother's Day, they are SUPER CUTE!!! For those of you who are looking for a class, Laure emailed me simply raving about the class she took with Pam Grushkin. If you haven't taken a look at her website you should, she has some incredible classes. I sent an email last week, if you missed it, you can check out my website under CLASSES or simply get a hold of me. We will be meeting tomorrow evening from 6-7:30 for Stitch and Bitch, let me know if you'd like to join. Make it a great day and I hope to see you soon!
Katy
Comments