I say 'kinda' because it did not get finished. Not Even Close. I honestly thought I might get the main bit finished and then perhaps to the neck and edgings over the next few weeks. Nah. Nowhere near.
I've just had to get a little arty to describe this bit because words weren't doing it... So, the blue bits are the cast ons, the bottom cast on for the bottom of the sweater and then you cast on for the arms and knit right over the top, casting off for the arms on the other side, carrying on with the body and then casting off at the very bottom before sewing it up down the sides and the undersides of the arms. Yes? The orange line is where you introduce some spare yarn for about a third of the stitches, and slide the stitches back over the needles and carry on knitting like it's never been there. Then in the end, you slowly and carefully take the orange yarn out and it leaves you with live stitches at either side that you pop on your needles and knit up for the big funnel neck.
The big funnel neck that's as big as the bloody body!
Every time I think, ahhh, I've done this bit, now just this bit and this bit and then I'm done. Nah. Big bloody funnel neck still to do. Haha.
I took it down south with me over Christmas in the hope that I might actually get something done but I never really got a good start on it - you know when knitting just doesn't 'grab' you? I'm a firm believer that knitting should be enjoyable and that meant that it had to go back on hold and now the finishitis has struck it feels like the perfect time to do it. So I fannied around finding it (and finding a bottle of fizzy pop that's now been discontinued in the bag with it!) and picked it back up again on Saturday night whilst we were watching Game of Thrones (omg, how's taken me so long to find this?!). I managed six rows in two hours. Look, it's not my fault:
GAH! Doesn't it set your teeth on edge!?!?!?
But what you can hopefully see is that down at the bottom, I dutifully sewed in all the ends as I was going. I think what I did was a block of four rows and then sewed in ends for 10 minutes. It's my little way of getting stuff done when I don't want to. It's part of the reason I hadn't picked it up for a while though so I've told myself I don't have to worry about sewing in ends until I've cast off for the sleeves and I'm working down the other side of the body. I'm somewhere here now:
In fact I'm a bit further than that looks really. From the sleeve cast on to the orange bit there's a repeat and a half of the pattern and then the same after the orange to the cast off - I'm about 9/10 done on the first repeat after the orange. So nearly there, it's what I'll be knitting at knit club tonight. :)
BUT.
At sewing club on Sunday I made a massive mistake:
Can you tell? It's like spot the difference. Ha.
Well, if you can't, the motif at the bottom has alternating orange and navy petals all the way around, yes? The one at the top is like a mirror image. Does it matter? Hmmm. Yes, I think. But not enough to rip. I kinda thought I might just carry on with this motif and then go back to how it's supposed to be after but then the 'wrong' motif would be right at the top of the neck, the front and back are the same as far as I can see so I could wear it at the back. But that's not really styling it out, is it? That's trying to hide the fact that you've made a honking great mistake.
What I think I've decided to do it to carry on with the mistake on the whole of this side of the jumper. Then I have one that's resersible. I think it'll be interesting so see how the colours play together like that because there's obviously a real difference between the light and bright orange and the dark and dull navy. Also the yellow and dark green diagonal bits make a difference to that - the yellow really brightens up the 'orange side' doesn't it? To me, this is much more styling it out that just pretending I didn't do the mistake. And I get two looks for the price of one.
One thing is for certain, I am not ripping that motif (or even half motif) out. No way. Nuh uh.
(Although it did definitely cross my mind which is most unusual.)
Anyway, I'm setting a realistic target of doing up to the sleeve cast offs this week before Boyf gets home and after that the body should seem like a right whizz and I can get on with sewing the ends in which I'm actually getting more and more excited about because the body bit that has been sew in looks bloody great!
Anyway, here's a more overall picture of the beast - because it really is a beast!
Now that, is a serious amount of intarsia.
Love Eleanor. xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment