Project Sprig: Trying to escape from Sleevil Island
The inevitable Sleeve Island, where many an adventurer was trapped and garments strand unfinished. Over the summer, such as it was, I didn't knit much and when some shiny socks were luring I forgot ignored the Sprig, but as the weather turned wetter and colder than it has been all summer, it was going to be high time to finish this garment. I haven't blogged about working on it since May, so a little recap:
In my last post about Sprig I had just finished the increases at the waist, and still needed to finish off the rest of the body and the hem. I had decided to put in a row of purl stitches before doing regular 2x2 ribbing, because in my Boden jumper that seemed to prevent the hem from turning up. I'm not sure Sprig is behaving the same way, but it's not been blocked yet, so who knows.
I picked up the sleeve stitches and followed the instructions for decreasing down the arm. A quick fit later it was too tight.
So I decided to knit just straight down for ten centimetres and start the decreases later. Around elbow-length I fit it again. It still wasn't the right shape for my arms.
So I frogged back again and decided to skip the decreases altogether, knit straight down to the wrist. At some point I marked the sleeve length and measured 13 centimeters to go. Then I knit a little more, promptly lost the marker from my work (so....xx centimeters to go?) and had to fit again.
It's clear that despite the stitches being stretched a bit because the dpns are keeping them properly spaced, the sleeves were becoming too wide. Urhnn. Did I really want to frog back and do the sleeve again? Not really.
So I asked my friends for their opinion. Kat came back with a really simple question: "Will you be annoyed if your wide sleeve catches on something?"
Yes, I would. My favourite (sewn) merino jumper had wide sleeves and after one season I altered them to fit more snugly. I would be afraid if I finished the Sprig sleeves with a 2x2 ribbed cuff I they would show wear too quickly, and I'd be sad if such an interesting jumper wouldn't also have an interesting cuff.
Granted, the original finishing of the sleeves was at the elbow, but I could very easily do the same side-ways knit band of sprigs at the wrist instead.
I would just need to frog back to the point where the sleeve was fine, right at the elbow where there's a marker in the above picture, and then start my decreases.
*sigh*
Building a raft is hard when everything tapers at the wrong point, but some day I will figure out how to build a perfect fitting raft and escape the evil Sleevil Island!
(I am a little worried about how Sprig will look when I've finished everything, because I've lost 15 kilogrammes since casting on this project, and I'm still losing weight, but I am going to finish Sprig the way it is, darnit!)
In my last post about Sprig I had just finished the increases at the waist, and still needed to finish off the rest of the body and the hem. I had decided to put in a row of purl stitches before doing regular 2x2 ribbing, because in my Boden jumper that seemed to prevent the hem from turning up. I'm not sure Sprig is behaving the same way, but it's not been blocked yet, so who knows.
I picked up the sleeve stitches and followed the instructions for decreasing down the arm. A quick fit later it was too tight.
So I decided to knit just straight down for ten centimetres and start the decreases later. Around elbow-length I fit it again. It still wasn't the right shape for my arms.
So I frogged back again and decided to skip the decreases altogether, knit straight down to the wrist. At some point I marked the sleeve length and measured 13 centimeters to go. Then I knit a little more, promptly lost the marker from my work (so....xx centimeters to go?) and had to fit again.
It's clear that despite the stitches being stretched a bit because the dpns are keeping them properly spaced, the sleeves were becoming too wide. Urhnn. Did I really want to frog back and do the sleeve again? Not really.
So I asked my friends for their opinion. Kat came back with a really simple question: "Will you be annoyed if your wide sleeve catches on something?"
Yes, I would. My favourite (sewn) merino jumper had wide sleeves and after one season I altered them to fit more snugly. I would be afraid if I finished the Sprig sleeves with a 2x2 ribbed cuff I they would show wear too quickly, and I'd be sad if such an interesting jumper wouldn't also have an interesting cuff.
Granted, the original finishing of the sleeves was at the elbow, but I could very easily do the same side-ways knit band of sprigs at the wrist instead.
I would just need to frog back to the point where the sleeve was fine, right at the elbow where there's a marker in the above picture, and then start my decreases.
*sigh*
Building a raft is hard when everything tapers at the wrong point, but some day I will figure out how to build a perfect fitting raft and escape the evil Sleevil Island!
(I am a little worried about how Sprig will look when I've finished everything, because I've lost 15 kilogrammes since casting on this project, and I'm still losing weight, but I am going to finish Sprig the way it is, darnit!)