i have the mother of all headaches today. insomnia again last night...sort of. it was of the "busy" variety rather than the "try and fail to sleep" variety.
i made repairs and alterations to the variegated merino turtleneck i knitted a few weeks ago. i haven't been terribly thrilled with how it is wearing, as a garment. it's very fuzzy and pill-prone, unfortunately, and the elbows had bagged out pretty badly. the turtleneck had relaxed into a floppy mock-neck, too, which i didn't like. finally, i made a mistake while grafting the armpits that i needed to fix...so, it needed some needle work.
well, i opened up the turtleneck collar and ripped it back a few inches, then knit it on smaller needles (with new yarn--i had extra of the same dye lot), making it about an inch and a half longer. taller. whatever. i also opened up the armpits...which was a bitch, because the yarn had not only pilled in the amrpits, it was actually beginning to felt. i managed it, though, and the re-grafting (remembering to pick up an extra stitch on either side of the live stitches, so there wouldn't be a hole) went really well on one side. not so much on the other. somehow, despite being really careful, i managed to rip out an extra row or two. i don't know how that happened, but it took some doing to trace everything back and to make sure that i wasn't leaving any dropped stitches behind. i finally got it all closed up again, but there is some uneven tension on one side that i wasn't able to work back in very well. i did the best i could, and called it good, then washed the thing. as i type this, it is sitting on my table drying. i'm a little worried, because it looks a bit stretched out from washing.
i'm not sure i would buy this yarn again. it was wonderful to knit with--like butter--but i'm not happy with how it's behaving in my sweater. if i were going to knit the whole thing again, i would use smaller needles, i think. the yarn manufacturer recommends using 10.75's. i used 10.5's, and the resultant fabric just doesn't have enough body. i think if i had used #9's it would have turned out much better. but it's still wearable (assuming it hasn't completely stretched out in the wash), so not a disaster...just not quite the outcome i was hoping for.
oh well, live and learn. that's why i do anything.
i made repairs and alterations to the variegated merino turtleneck i knitted a few weeks ago. i haven't been terribly thrilled with how it is wearing, as a garment. it's very fuzzy and pill-prone, unfortunately, and the elbows had bagged out pretty badly. the turtleneck had relaxed into a floppy mock-neck, too, which i didn't like. finally, i made a mistake while grafting the armpits that i needed to fix...so, it needed some needle work.
well, i opened up the turtleneck collar and ripped it back a few inches, then knit it on smaller needles (with new yarn--i had extra of the same dye lot), making it about an inch and a half longer. taller. whatever. i also opened up the armpits...which was a bitch, because the yarn had not only pilled in the amrpits, it was actually beginning to felt. i managed it, though, and the re-grafting (remembering to pick up an extra stitch on either side of the live stitches, so there wouldn't be a hole) went really well on one side. not so much on the other. somehow, despite being really careful, i managed to rip out an extra row or two. i don't know how that happened, but it took some doing to trace everything back and to make sure that i wasn't leaving any dropped stitches behind. i finally got it all closed up again, but there is some uneven tension on one side that i wasn't able to work back in very well. i did the best i could, and called it good, then washed the thing. as i type this, it is sitting on my table drying. i'm a little worried, because it looks a bit stretched out from washing.
i'm not sure i would buy this yarn again. it was wonderful to knit with--like butter--but i'm not happy with how it's behaving in my sweater. if i were going to knit the whole thing again, i would use smaller needles, i think. the yarn manufacturer recommends using 10.75's. i used 10.5's, and the resultant fabric just doesn't have enough body. i think if i had used #9's it would have turned out much better. but it's still wearable (assuming it hasn't completely stretched out in the wash), so not a disaster...just not quite the outcome i was hoping for.
oh well, live and learn. that's why i do anything.