Saturday, September 3, 2011

Purple Pain

I've been thinking a lot about the experience my friends are having as they learn to knit.  They've gone into the endeavor with the idea that it looks impossible, only to learn that it's really quite easy, at first.  Then things get complicated, like when extra stitches appear, or the yarn begins to shed.  It turns out that knitting is really very complicated, and even with 25 years of experience, mistakes happen.  These thoughts came to me as I was tearing out the Lutz and Patmos cardigan that I made from a pattern in the Early Fall 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting.  I used a different yarn, but the huge dimensions were as directed in the pattern.  The problem was that such a sweater is not meant for a larger person, with it's chunky yarn and big cables. Cables every inch!  I've had it sitting in the closet for a year now, so today was the day it got dismantled.
 It looks so nice, laid out on the floor.  I actually tried it on again, thinking maybe it would be OK, but no, it still looked like a big robe.
 Brownie, ever the helper.
I have vague plans to use the yarn to make a simple (no cables) V-neck sweater, with a matching scarf.

4 comments:

Oogyknitter said...

Very brave actions indeed, to rip all of that lovely work out! Sometimes yarn refuses to become a certain pattern, but sometimes certain patterns refuse to look good! I do like how you left the pockets intact though - are you thinking of incorporating them in your vest or scarf somehow, as a sort of homage to the sweater that will never be?

smw said...

Let me also praise your bravery. While it's hard to dismiss all the hours of work that went into that big project, the flip side is the cleansing effect of the deconstruction. And the beauty of frogged yarn is that you can recycle it into other projects.

neuroknitter said...

I wish I could say I was feeling brave while deconstructing the purple monster, but I was mostly feeling annoyed. Now, however, I am very happily contemplating the possibilities, and I love the idea of keeping the pockets for whatever this pile becomes.

Doc C said...

Wow! I can't believe you unraveled it all. That had to hurt. The purple yarn however is very pretty :-)