Thursday, January 28, 2010

My first FO since the dawn of time...

Yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic. But in all seriousness, the last time I posted about an FO waaaaas... ummmm... hmm...

May of 2009.

May. Of '09? Really??!

Really.

I guess that shows how I was feeling in 2009 because I had many-a bad boy flying off the needles since that post. I will also blame Ravelry. Because it has kinda made me lazy. I blame them mostly because they are not here to defend themselves and fully taking responsibility for my laziness doesn't seem right. However the whole thing about me being lazy is pretty darned true.

Excuses aside, this FO has been years in the making. Yarn was bought as a kit at Rhinebeck in 2007. The kit I bought was two skeins short, so I ordered two more skeins as fast as I could. Not sure when I started knitting in 2008 but by January of 2009 I had this:

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I was probably 75% done with it and then I came to that realization that one never wants to come to. I knew in the deep recesses of my heart that I was never going to wear this. So I riiiipped. And then immediately cast on for what I thought was going to be a kick-ass, fairly straightforward and easy sweater. But did I do a gauge swatch? Noooooooooo. I thought, "Why do something as silly as that?" No surprise that the new sweater was too small. In addition, I couldn't get the cable/increase combo down so it was a bit of disaster. So I riiiipped again and promptly stuffed the yarn back in the closet so I wouldn't think about it any more.

Fast forward to December 2009. After a year of small projects, I decide that 2010 would be the Year of Sweater and every sweater made will be for me. I decided that if I'm going to kick this sweater year off right then I am going to kick it right in the groin. I yelled out to no one in particular, "YOU WILL NOT CRUSH ME!!1!" Immediately, I whipped out the yarn that had given me so much trouble and did a gauge swatch. Then I copied the pattern from the web into a Word doc and rearranged things so I could cable and increase at the same time without any tears. Then I was off. Like lightening! Like a cheap toupee!! I knit like a madwoman. I admired what I completed and glared at the small pile of yarn cakes I had left. "OMGNOES... I am going to run out of yaaaaaaaaaaarn." I just kept knitting as if the faster I knit the more yarn I will end up with. (We've all been there. Don't deny it!) Then to my horror (the horror!) I discovered one of my skeins was spun at a thinner gauge then the rest. It was spun so much thinner that I had to double it to be the same gauge as the rest. Now there was no way I had enough yarn. I ordered a new skein which, no surprise with it being over two years later, ended up being a totally different color. I trudged on, grumbling, cussing and shaking my fists. Telling myself over and over that maybe I shouldn't knit this, or any, sweater because clearly knitting is stupid and I'm a big dummyhead.

Then the skies cleared, angels sang and I had a sweater. With too much yarn to spare. Like almost a whole skein. Not including the one bought in a panic.

The End.

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AMUSED AT MYSELF...
Started: Dec 29, 2009
Completed: January 24, 2010
Pattern: Amused by Jordana Paige
Yarn: Morehouse Farm Merino Merino 3-Strand
Color: Brown Heather
Skeins: 7.3
Needles: 6 mm/US 10 Knitpicks Options
Ravelry deets here.

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7 comments:

Cara said...

Hooray! Maybe someday I will dust off my sweater too - last worked on in May 2008...

Tracey said...

beautiful! third time's a charm.

turtlegirl76 said...

Oooh absolutely gorgeous!

LindaLovesLace said...

Amusing story :-)
Fabulous finished sweater!!

Lorena said...

LOL! I remember that purchase! Good job, hon; looks great!

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool blog you've got here. Thank you for it. I like such topics and everything connected to them. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

Best regards

Jen said...

Hey Sugarplum,

Thanks for the kudos on the job - it's exhausting and totally thrilling!

xoxo