1 Step Forward, 10 Steps Back

Today has been very productive. I spent the morning ripping back. Yep. RIPPING BACK!

Saturday night I slipped on my Dark & Gothic and went to my neighbor's to hear Havdalah. I'm very lucky to have Amazing Neighbors. But when Mrs. Amazing Neighbor kept trying to tug the collar into place and Mr. Amazing Neighbor commented that though he usually loves my knits, the buttons just weren't working for him, I knew the time had come to rip. I didn't, however, anticipate the brilliant move of pulling out the bottom bind off instead of the shawl collar, nor the disaster that would ensue.

Old photo, just to jog your memory

So now there are about three or four rows to be reworked on the bottom as well as picking up the stitches and reknitting the collar. And truth be told, I wasn't thrilled with my button holes. But the potential for this sweater is astounding. I love the cut, the colorway, the cables, the collar (count all the 'c's)! There is no reason for this not be perfect. So while I continue to hunt down the perfect buttons, some a'fixin' will be going on.

In other ripping news, I'm making my way down this top down conversion of Vaila.

The neck is a decadent cowl, taking up an entire hank,

it will look more "cowly" after blocking!

and then extends into a Raglan sleeved sweater.

A lace panel runs down the front (I omitted the back panel in the name of short-rows)

and right there at the bottom, can you see it, I brought in two new hanks about 12 rows up from the bottom and they started striping. Striping! So I ripped back and subbed in two other hanks and I think we're ok now. This gave me time to consider how long I want this sweater to be. We have learned from experience that without any hips, a longer length is not flattering. The ribbing on this is 5" which is a lot of ribbing so I decided to end the patterned section at the very end of that 6th repeat. I'll be switching to the larger needle size now to do the ribbing, then it's on to the arms.

Vaila by Gudrun Johnston

from the Twist Collective

Yarn: Madelinetosh Worsted MCN 80/10/10

Colorway: Nebula

Needles: 5.0 & 5.5 mm (US 8 & 9)

Mods: Top Down conversion, fitted to my body instead of A-Line

Interesting note: Unlike many designers, Gudrun uses a larger size needle for her ribbing, rather than a smaller one. I first saw this in my Dahlia in Unst.