Ellen in Indy left me a comment with this appeal for advice:
hi, julie --
i'm knitting a yoked raglan by elizabeth zimmerman's method. i've done many plain yokes before and usually things work out well.
this time, however, i tried it on about 3 inches shy of completion and bad news: its a bit too tight for some one my age who isn't trying too hard to be a `'sexy senior citizen." it needs about 2 inches of ease.
the yarn is 3-ply 100% hand-dyed uruguayan wool (not superwash) which i bought through a coop. it's a heavy worsted knitted on a 9 circular needle. i have two 220-yard balls left. it's green and black, not the light to dark green i expected from the web site, and looks rather like camo, but that's ok. i still love the yarn.
i have four choices, as i see it (though if you or readers have other ideas, bring 'em on, please):
1. give the sweater to someone smaller. that would be my daughter. she doesn't like wool sweaters that well.
2. lose 20 lbs (i need to anyway . . . !)
3. frog the whole thing down to its components, and then frog and re-knit the body, join the pieces and knit it to completion.
4. complete the sweater, pretend there's a steek, baste the front, cut it and knit on a band to turn it into a cardi.
i know free advice is said to be worth what you pay for it. well, i pay attention to your blog regularly. does that count? --grin--
My advice is, finish the sweater, wash it, and try it on again. That alone might make the fibers relax enough to give you the ease you need. If that doesn't work, then you can either tear back and start over, or make it into a cardigan, depending on how well the wash works out. I would probably tear out and start over, but then I just finished knitting myself a cardi. (If you do tear out and start over, make sure to take a good gauge measurement first from your very large and very accurate 'swatch' that you just washed.)
Anybody else have any ideas?
4 comments:
I love you all, but when it comes to frogging an entire sweater, my kneejerk reaction is, "Death First." I would probably (as you recommended) wash and block large and see what happens...
Then I'd steek it, knit on a button band and pretend that I'd meant to do that...
If you can't wear it, then it sounds like a great gift for someone else.
Pam (who hates to swatch)
Well perfectionist me (from the hoosier state as well) would probably rip back and do over. However, if you want a cardigan and it wont bother you forever then go for the steek and snip. Good luck with whatever you decide.
When you wash it, give it a final rinse with some hair conditioner, then block with abandon. and if that doesn't do it, I would go for the cardi in a heart beat!
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