The Reluctant Ripper

Knit Sister, Gail Munro, writes:

"I loved the colors of the pretty sweater for Aubrey - I really hate to redo a sweater, but sometimes we must. Only once though ;-). I made a gorgeous Debby Bliss sweater for summer. After checking gauge and still going down a needle size, I worked like mad to get it done. Yikes, it is at least 2 sizes too big. One that will have to be redone. No hurry now though, too many winter projects."



Mmmmm, no need to rip it, Gail. I know someone it might fit. :)

If at first you don't succeed, maybe you should try something else.

Karen has been a knitting fool for her great-grandbabies. If you will recall my last entry, she made a sweater set for each of her two youngest GGC's. She has since made another sweater and hat set in this lovely blue:



Then she went on to make an adorable hoodie sweater for Conner:



The pattern for the hoodie sweater is called Bar Harbor Hoodie and can be found in the September 2010 issue of Creative Knitting.

With all that knitting Karen was doing, I managed to finish up a set of basic wash clothes. Go me!



Oh, I also made a sweater for Mason the Destroyer that looks cuter on than off. He can wear it through the upcoming holidaze:



About a year ago, I went to one of my favorite yarn shops and saw an adorable toddler sweater made up in a really scrumptious yarn. The yarn was kind of pricey, but it really, really was scrumptious so I decided I had to make the sweater for Aubrey. The pattern ("Blue Mood," an odd name for a child's sweater. Maybe it's named after the exhausted mother) called for "Baby" made by Tahki Yarns, but was made up using "BigBaby," by Muench. I decided to go with the Muench yarn because the feel of the yarn was what I was drawn to. I figured it was probably about the same weight as called for in the pattern, cause the shop owner is smart like that. Not so. I vastly underestimated the amount of yarn I would need for this project. The six balls I thought I would need, turned into ten balls of yarn, with an end cost for the project of close to $100.

Now, I'm not saying that Aubrey isn't worth $100, but that's a lot of cha-ching for a garment that she will grow out of in a year or, worse, lose at school within two weeks of giving it to her. Le sigh. I had to let go of my angst over the cost of the sweater because I'd already knitted up all the yarn I had when I discovered my error. No turning back now.

Here's how the sweater looked using the "Blue Mood" pattern as written. Cute as a button, est-ce que n'est pas ainsi?



Well, it looked like crap on Aubrey. It was way too wide on her slim little body and way too short. On a toddler, I'm sure it would have been adorable, but not on a tall, slim budding beauty, so I ripped it apart and started over, making major changes to the pattern. Here's the second try:



I made it smaller around, tapered in the shoulders, added length to the body of the sweater and the sleeves (to make up for the tapered shoulders). Also, because I don't like to do seams if I don't have to, I made the body of the sweater in one piece, picked up stitches around the arm holes and knit the sleeves in the round. I also ditched the crocheted border and simply knit in a garter stitch border into the body as I went.

Hopefully, it will look better on her than the first attempt because I'm not taking it apart again. It is what it is.