Sunday, March 19, 2006

Some Re-work Required...

Dear Cynthia,

After disclosing to you all of my current works-in-progress, I'm going to continue my true confessions and share with you what I have in my queue for re-work. I am not fond of "re-work". I think I dislike it even more than "finishing". However, to get the value of the money spent on the yarn (I am a "product knitter", after all), to be happy wearing it, etc., re-work is a harsh reality which I am finally bringing myself to acknowledge. (By the way, I'm not certain of how that word is spelled. I'm sure that by now, you have realized that spelling is not my strong suit. In fact, whenever I take a lab exam, I am always docked for bad spelling on at least three words. But, that's another subject...)

You might remember our trip to the north side of Milwaukee (Grafton, I think?) in which I bought the green yarn for this sweater. I like the yarn. I have a matching pair of socks, except the socks fit me, and the sweater doesn't. So, I tried to fix it, not by frogging, but by slightly felting it. That process did not make it fit better, but it did make it impossible to frog. And so, for the last few years, I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. I think I finally decided that I'm going to cut it up, sew the pieces together to make a bag, then felt it all the way, and finish it off with some needle felting of flowers or something.

I made this top last summer. I really like it, except it is cotton, and like almost everything I've ever made out of cotton, it makes me look like a bell when I wear it. I'm going to try to take out just the bottom of it, and re-work it back down to the hem. I'm not sure what I'll do to prevent it from flaring out so much..... I'll have to think about that a little more, and would welcome any thoughts on it which you might have.

This sweater I made when I was in college, more than (ahem) 20 years ago (gasp). I love the collar, but I've never liked the sleeves on it. I think they would look so much better set in a little bit instead of dropped. This might be crazy, but armed with my recent experience at cutting an armhole, I think I might try a little twist on the Norwegian Steek, and then maybe re-knit the sleeves to fit into the new hole? hmmm...not sure how that would work, though....

Work continues on the new pair of socks, which I am determined to finish very soon so that I can take them off of the list and put them into the sock drawer.

My next post will show my current stash, untouched by knitting needles. Speaking of stash, I went to the yarn store yesterday.... And now, I'd better get to work!!

Warm regards,
Laura (aka YarnThrower)

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