woohoo, i actually get to make a post! and it's a much-needed one, too. i have made--dare i say it?--progress.
in fact, mom's perfect sweater is finished. i think. i have a feeling it could use a couple inches of length, but i can't say for sure until mom tries it on. if i'm right, i'll just undo (or, more likely, cut off) the hem, pick the sts back up and knit a couple inches of ribbing.
i'm not entirely satisfied with the finished product. luke says it looks fine, but he's biased. and he's a guy who knows and cares absolutely nothing about women's clothing. i will say that i like it much better after washing. i soaked it in the sink with detergent, rinsed it clean, and then let it soak for a while longer with fabric softener and rinsed lightly again. then i squeezed out the extra water, put it in the dryer for one cycle so it was just barely damp, and hung it up to dry the rest of the way. before doing all that, the stitches were uneven, there was a visible crease right across the center of the bust, it was very holey, the neck didn't lay flat and the hem kept flipping up. after washing, most of those problems have been solved. the stitches are even and theevening-out of the stitches eliminated the bust crease. the neck lays much more evenly and flatly now (at least as much as a ribbed turtleneck can) and the hem stays put...mostly. it still pokes out a bit more than i'd like, but it's probably not noticeable to anyone but me. the yarn also fluffed a bit and the sweater's a little less see-through, but still more open than i had hoped. she'll have to wear a camisole or something underneath.
as for what i don't like, aside from the openness, the increases and decreases along the side are very visible. that's not really a problem because i doubt anyone will see or care, especially since they're along the sides and the inside of the sleeves, but still. i notice. also, i wish the neck was knit more tightly. i wanted to knit it on size 5 needles, but i couldn't find them, so i knit the neck on the same bamboo 7s as the body and just tried to pull tightly. unfortunately, it is entirely impossible for me to knit tightly on bamboo needles. as a result, since it's ribbing, it looks more loosely knit than the rest of the sweater. and the ribs look huge. that would be cool if the sweater was bulky and oversized, but it's not. at least it's not supposed to be, and i don't think it will be. so the neck looks a little out-of-place to me. but the good news is the picked-up sts around the neckline are spaced evenly and make the neckline a smooth curve.
now i just have to give it to mom and have her try it on. there's still a possibility it may not fit. the neckline is not as stretchy as i had hoped it would be. it fits over my head just fine and i can't imagine her having much more trouble than i, since there's only about an inch of difference in our head sizes, but it doesn't have a lot of give. more importantly, it's large on me...but not too large. honestly, it fits me about the same way most of her sweaters fit me, but 2" shorter. but...most of her sweaters are ribbed or cabled. this one is not. it may stretch out more across the bust than the ribbed sweaters, or at least look more stretched out. and since it's already a little bit loosely-knit, stretched-out is not a good look for it. but hey, i guess i'll see when she tries it on. if it doesn't fit her i'll just shorten the sleeves and keep it for myself.
i'm going to try to convince luke to model it for me tonight. hehe. that's gonna take some convincing. but that way i can see it on another person, which is entirely different from seeing it on myself in a mirror while standing on a stool. besides, his chest is about the same size around as mom's bust, it's just...his is that size all down the length of his chest, not only in one section. that shouldn't be a problem since i ended up cutting out the short rows anyway.
i'll try to get pictures. not of luke modelling. he'd kill me. but of the sweater hanging up and then, later, on mom. assuming it fits her and she likes it.
whew. okay that was long. in other news...now that the perfect sweater is finished, i have taken rogue off hiatus. i don't think i'll get to finish it before it goes back on hiatus though. the perfect sweater took longer than i had expected. i still have to finish mom's serrano so she can wear it this spring, so i need to get back to work on it pretty soon.
but i can't hold off on rogue any longer. i still love it. it's re-active as of last night. i have worked the first 8 rows of the hood. maybe i'll complete the hood and then put it back on hiatus, finish serrano and then do the sleeves. it'll mean no rogue for me at all this winter. but that's okay. this is me. i'll wear it in the summer. i probably wouldn't finish in time to wear it in winter anyway. i'm slow at sleeves.
i'll update the project progress bars on the right as soon as i have access to a computer that doesn't suck like this one does. i'm lucky to even be updating.
i'm finished for now, i promise! back to knitting...
-pixie
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