And second sleeve done.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
One Down
In case you're counting, it's one sleeve, ribbing and all, down and the ribbing started on sleeve #2.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Did you ever notice
Did you ever notice how the smallest baby has the loudest and most penetrating cry, how the most expensive meal contains the smallest amount of actual food and how the sleeve, the smallest diametered component of a sweater takes up the most yarn?
It's the mysteries of life that keep us moving on. That principle has been brought home to me in the bohus sweater.
It's a funny shape because it's on the dress form that's too big now but this is what I've got. Before this latest effort, it was the body and the one sleeve worked to the point of needing the ribbing and the second sleeve worked just a few inches. Then I ran out of yarn. But I've got plenty of this red merino fiber because I wanted to prepare for just such a situation. This past weekend, I spun another couple of hundred yards of yarn and assumed that would be PLENTY for the body ribbing and to finish the second sleeve and do the ribbing for both sleeves. Sleeves are small around and you decrease all the time as you're knitting. It's simple math, right?
I'm coming to believe it's actually quantum physics, it's Time Lord physics (bigger on the inside), there nothing simple about it in the least. It's the same force that comes to bear on a project when you're trying to get the same number of rows in a second object as the first, whether that be a sleeve or a sock. There's a shift in time that happens that means you're always working much, much longer on the second object and you have to press through that place that feels like treading through thick gooey stuff until you break through and find you've knitting 10 rows too many and have to rip out.
All of that to say that I've been within 12 rounds of the second sleeve matching the first for about a month this week and it never reaches the end. It should be there. I'm a fast knitter and I've actually spent time knitting this week instead of working on my fascinating bobbin lace. I've also blown off 2 meetings this week that I should have attended and spent that time knitting. There's no reason why a little bitty old sleeve shouldn't be finished. But it's not.
And not only is the sleeve not finished, it has sucked in a gob of yarn. This last skein should have been more than sufficient to finish and now I'm worried. It looks more than half gone (although looks can be deceptive in the time warp) and it's going to take me another year to finish the sleeve before I can even start on the ribbing.
On top of all that, I tried it on tonight (the advantage of a top down) and I'm not at all sure that the body is long enough. I know in my mind that when it's washed and properly blocked, it won't be all bunched up like this. It will relax. That's what I keep telling myself. It will relax. But I'm not sure. I did try it on and measure it before I entered the time warp and it seemed right to me so I'm just going to trust that this is the timey, wimey thing affecting my judgement.
I expect I'm going to be back at the spinning wheel this weekend, though, just to make the loop complete.
It's the mysteries of life that keep us moving on. That principle has been brought home to me in the bohus sweater.
I'm coming to believe it's actually quantum physics, it's Time Lord physics (bigger on the inside), there nothing simple about it in the least. It's the same force that comes to bear on a project when you're trying to get the same number of rows in a second object as the first, whether that be a sleeve or a sock. There's a shift in time that happens that means you're always working much, much longer on the second object and you have to press through that place that feels like treading through thick gooey stuff until you break through and find you've knitting 10 rows too many and have to rip out.
All of that to say that I've been within 12 rounds of the second sleeve matching the first for about a month this week and it never reaches the end. It should be there. I'm a fast knitter and I've actually spent time knitting this week instead of working on my fascinating bobbin lace. I've also blown off 2 meetings this week that I should have attended and spent that time knitting. There's no reason why a little bitty old sleeve shouldn't be finished. But it's not.
And not only is the sleeve not finished, it has sucked in a gob of yarn. This last skein should have been more than sufficient to finish and now I'm worried. It looks more than half gone (although looks can be deceptive in the time warp) and it's going to take me another year to finish the sleeve before I can even start on the ribbing.
On top of all that, I tried it on tonight (the advantage of a top down) and I'm not at all sure that the body is long enough. I know in my mind that when it's washed and properly blocked, it won't be all bunched up like this. It will relax. That's what I keep telling myself. It will relax. But I'm not sure. I did try it on and measure it before I entered the time warp and it seemed right to me so I'm just going to trust that this is the timey, wimey thing affecting my judgement.
I expect I'm going to be back at the spinning wheel this weekend, though, just to make the loop complete.