Mysterious Gas

Dear Cynthia,

Ever since I sent away to college, I have been plagued by a mysterious gas in my clothes closet. It really isn't detectable, except for the effect it has on all of my clothes. The length of my clothes doesn't seem to change much, but for some reason, this mysterious gas makes everything fit just a little bit tighter.

And so, imagine my alarm last night when I discovered that this very same gas has made its way into my knitting bag. I've been knitting a nice rectangle which will be the fronts and back of a sweater, and last night I put the live stitches onto a piece of yarn so that I could get an accurate measurement, just to make sure I was on the right track with the gauge (which, had been checked at the very start of this project, at which time I ripped back twice to start over with a different number of stitches on my needles due to gauge issues). I am using my wonderful, soft, merino, hand-painted yarn.....and this rectangle has lost about 5 1/2 inches of width, just by sitting in my knitting bag. (Hmmm...I wonder if I could lose a little bit of width just by sitting in my knitting bag...but I digress...) Since I am already doing the "I wonder if I'm going to have enough yarn" dance, making decisions to conserve yarn such as planning for borders out of solid color yarn, opting for a vee-neck instead of a crew neck, and thinking about sleeve options which don't require as much yarn, such as raglan, or set-in, versus dropped.....I really don't want to rip this out and make it larger....just too afraid that I'll run out of yarn.

And so, I've looked through several magazines, and have decided that I'm going to put a "knitted on" cable along the front edges. This will require finding just the right color yarn in just the right gauge, but if it means I must take a trip to the yarn store, well then, okay. I'm going to go with either a plaited cable, or an xoxo cable, probably. And, instead of the raglan sleeves I was going to use, this will have set-in sleeves, which means seaming (and we all know how I feel about "finishing" work), but desperate times call for desperate measures.....

Anyway, I thought I understood the concept of "gauge", but clearly, I am still "gauge impaired"...

I'm going to attend an informational session today about the graduate PT program here. I've been taking classes toward completing prerequisites for this program, and this afternoon they are offering an informational session and tour of the facilities. I'm still undecided about it, though excited about getting some more information.....

Have a great weekend, and warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)