two things

With a week off and amazing – amazing – weather this week, I cannot believe how much I’ve been making stuff with my hands. There’s something about spring and fall that just make me want to be creative, like, all the time.

The sweater is progressing very nicely, although the pieces by themselves look pretty shabby, especially with all of those ends hanging out.

I also conned Laura into teaching me something new this week. I’ve been wanting to learn how to spin for a while, now, and a few nights ago I bought a cheap drop spindle and learned how.

That, kids, is my first yarn. (It is not quite that eye-searingly blue in person; I was having some issues with light yesterday.) I used the leftover Fleece Artist roving from my thrummed mittens as practice, so there’s barely 15g of fiber there, but I’m very, very proud of it. (Even though I’m pretty sure I could have plied it tighter, looking at it now.)

I’m tempted to just keep it in my purse and show it to strangers, except that I’m pretty sure that’s weird.

idk, some joke about sweaters and phoenixes.

Thanks to everyone for the advice in my last entry. I did seriously consider putting my sweater in the dryer, but I really don’t trust the machines in my building, and it just seemed like a better plan to frog and start fresh. I rewound all the yarn (but did not rewash it – life is too short), and did a lot of serious Ravelry-searching to decide where I was going to go from there.

In the end, I decided that what I needed was a new swatch (which I stretched a little this time, after washing, to try and at least get an idea of how the yarn would behave in a sweater) and a new pattern altogether.

The other issue I had with my previous sweater was that I planned it with positive ease, hoping for something cozy and a bit slouchy. Considering how much the yarn grew, this was a mistake. So, in the spirit of learning from my previous poor choices, I have new sweater pieces knit with no ease, and I’m cautiously optimistic.

uh.

I learned an important lesson this weekend.

Basically, I blocked my sweater. I did not do anything fancy to it – it didn’t get stretched, or pinned, or anything like that. I just got it wet with a little bit of soap, squeezed out the water, and laid it flat to dry. I do not know what happened between the actual sweater and my dirty liar of a gauge swatch, but something did, and the sweater is perfect – except that I have to roll the sleeves up about four times and the neckline slips off my shoulders and the collar starts about three inches too low. It is beyond “sexy-slouchy” and into “elementary-school-aged-girl-playing-dress-up,” and I am very disappointed.

I don’t know. I mean, I am assuming the gauge difference is what did it, because there is one – but the swatch is 4.75 stitches/6.5 rows to the inch, and the sweater is 4.5 stitches/7 rows. Everything fits in terms of stitch gauge, but it’s way too long. If anyone on the internet has insight into what might have gone wrong, I’d appreciate it. Part of my issue is that I really have no idea what happened.

It is going to take me a few days before I work up the nerve to frog this sweater and start over, but I think I’m going to have to. I love this yarn, and there is no point in keeping it knit up in a sweater I’ll never wear outside the house.