Success...or Not?

I have finished my sweater, and I think it looks quite nice.  However, I was really making the sweater for a dear friend of mine from college that I have recently started corresponding with on a regular basis.  I wanted to talk about the sweater and still keep it as a surprise for her.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until just a few days ago that I found out her size is much smaller than mine.  We were about the same size in college, and the last time I saw her, she had put on a few pounds just as I have done.  What I didn't know is that she has taken off more pounds than I have, and so now the sweater that was made in my size will be much too large for her.  I have decided to make a new sweater for her.  This one will be in a slightly easier cable pattern and have a v-neck shape.  I think it will still be a very pretty sweater, and hopefully one that will fit her.  Maybe, it will only take me two weeks to make, instead of three.  If so, I can still have it finished by her birthday, Apr. 7th.  Since I have already told her about it, it will be okay if it isn't finished in time.  That way, I will not have to rush so much.  Knowing me...I will still be in high gear to get it done.  That is just how I function...full speed ahead...and no looking back.

As seen from the front, it shows a little on the shoulders where I had to make adjustments because I thought the neck was way too large.  The sleeve is really raglan, but I had to put a dart seam across the shoulder to pull the neck in a little.

This side shot catches the cable patterning on the sleeves.  I am also quite pleased to see that it does not look much different on the side where the darker back meets the lighter front.  It still is more obvious to me when I see it in person, but it is not as noticeable as I thought it might be.  Remember the Woes of Yarn from an earlier blog?

Another shot of the back as seen on a person and sewed into the whole sweater.  I have blogged the back before.

Now, it will be on to Nancy's sweater.  I can hardly wait to see how it will look.

Little Princesses and the Woes of Yarn

Yesterday was Dot's birthday and I gave her her princess dress.  Although Zoe's birthday is not until the 29th, she already got her dress early when Cheryl went to Pennsylvania on her winter break to see them.  Now, I can share the pictures of my two little princesses with you.  They are both very adorable, of course.

Princess Dorothy

Princess Zoe

Now, to the woes of yarn.  While I was working on my sweater, I once again experienced the upsetting problem of having yarn that I bought at the same time and from the same bin not match.  This happened once before when I was making socks for Kim.  Luckily, she didn't mind if the socks didn't match perfectly and I didn't have to knit another matching sock for her.  I wasn't so lucky this time.  I had finished the back of the sweater in the first ball of yarn.  I had enough from that ball to start the front.  Since it is a cardigan, I luckily was only knitting half of the front when I needed to switch to a new ball of yarn.  I never even thought about it not being the same color.  I finished the first half of the front and started the second half.  After I had completed about a third of the second half, I decided to compare the sides to see how they were matching up.  It is then that I discovered that the yarn was not quite the same color as the first.  I looked closer at the first half I had done to see how it looked when I joined in the two balls of yarn.  I was horrified.  It looked awful and was very noticeable.  I couldn't leave it like that.  I decided to finish the second half and redo the whole first half with the same ball of yarn.  What a lot of work!  If only I had checked when I first joined in the yarn.  I never expected this to happen again.  I guess I will never again join in a new ball of yarn without looking more closely.  Anyway, I now will still have a two-toned sweater, but it will be just the back that is different from the rest of the sweater.  I do not think that it will be that big of a deal since the two pieces are joined at the side seams.

It is quite obvious where the two balls were united.  So frustrating.

New Project

It isn't easy for me to not be busy with some knitting project.  My hands just get itching to do something.  I decided that it would be a good time to practice a really hard project with some difficult cable patterning in it.  I found a sweater pattern that I really like.  I have never made anything for myself, so I thought this might be a good time to do it.  I started to work on the sweater last Saturday evening, and I just completed the back of it today, Thursday afternoon.  I am very pleased with the outcome so far.  It has been a challenge.  I have had to take some of it out a few times to fix some mistakes, and that is tedious and frustrating.  I need to reverse my stitches, one at a time, so that I do not lose the pattern.  There are four different panels of patterning, with different numbers of rows for repetition.  It gets confusing to keep track of where I am in each panel, but I finally have a feel for it, and it is running quite smoothly.

This is what the back looks like.

This shows a sample of each of the panels, plus the rib stitch at the bottom of the sweater.