Kniting a sweater

I have been knitting for about three years now. About two years ago I found a pattern for a sweater in a Debbie Bliss magazine, the Hooded Kaftan,   I just had to knit.

So I took the pattern in to my LYS and spoke with an employee there. I told her I was knew to knitting and wasn't sure if I could do a sweater. She didn't let that stop her from selling me some yarn. She helped me pick out a cheaper version of the yarn the pattern called for and some colors they had in stock. She also helped me buy enough yarn for the sweater and more.  Well, I happily cast on, realizing this isn't that difficult, knit in stockinette with a few increases and decrease. The pattern was very well written. I had all of my pieces done and starting sewing them together. Things were turning out great, and then, I got to the hood. I had to ease the hood in to fit. Well it seemed to be about three feet longer the the body of the sweater. How was I going to do this. I took it to my Grandma who said she really hasn't made sweater but helped me through the process. All in all the sweater turned out good for my first one. I do wear it on occasion.

So I was feeling pretty good about all of this and decided about 9 months ago to start another sweater. I found a pattern. This time in Knitter's Magazine 101, called Glowing Cables.

 

 I had never done cables in my life. This wasn't going to stop me. I had finished one sweater, I can do this. I took a picture of the pattern to the Brownsville Stitching Parlor, (about an hour north of my house). Jamie, the owner, took one look at the picture and said that looks like it was knit with Schulana Mosco

 

 and took me to her supply of this wonderful yummy yarn. I instantly fell in love with it. I just had to knit my sweater with this yarn. At about $9.00 each, we figured I would need at least 13 balls to complete the project. I couldn't leave the yarn shop with out it. It is so soft and fluffy and wonderful. It had to be mine. So I made the purchase. Well you can do the math. This is going to be one expensive sweater. I cast on. I took my knitting everywhere. To my daughters gymnastics meet, doctor's appointments, work, everywhere. I started seconding guessing the amount of yarn I have for this sweater. I am measuring and remeasuring myself making sure I have enough yarn. Well, on my next trip to Brownsville I decided to buy just a few more balls of yarn just in case. So now I have 16 balls. Whew. I am happily knitting along and then I show off my work to my knitting pal Holly. Showing her my cables and the yarn and how it is being knit so nicely. Then I see it. I have about 10 1/2 inches done on the back panel and there it is. Huge, sticking out like a sore thumb. Neon lights flashing.

 

 I had a hole in my sweater oh and look this cable is backwards, and so is this one, and there is another one. About 20 rows back I had added a stitch, and my cables were backwards. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH.

 

 I had to make a big decision now. Frog my sweater back to my mistakes, or let it go and call it "unique". I looked at it, put it away, looked at it again, put it away, looked, away, looked, away and on and on. I tried to do some research to see if I could just fix only the cables without tearing out the entire 20 rows and making the sweater worse. I found one possible solution in my Knit Fix Book, but I was too scared to try it on this sweater. I know maybe if I put it away and forget about it for a while it will magically fix itself. Yeah that is what I will do. So away it went, but not forgotten. About 5 months have passed now and I decided to pull it back out. Check the sweater for this mistake and , and , and, ............oh crap its still there. Well, frogging it is. I tried adding thread to the spot of where I wanted to frog to. I was dealing with reverse stockinette, stockinette, cables and increases all in the same row. The thread wasn't  going to give me the security I needed to complete this task. I know, You Tube. Rats, nothing there. Well my last resort. Pull out 20 rows stitch by stitch.  I started. I worked on it a little at a time for about a week. At row 17 or so I realized I can stop now. My errors had been removed and the sweater is back to normal. WOOOHOOOOO.

 

 Now to continue on, knitting. The lessons to learn here LIFE LINES. If you don't know what they are. It is a thread placed in the working project as its knit. So if you have to go back you can just go back to this spot. I found it is easier to add the lifeline to the live stitches on the needle. If you want a good video check out The Knit Purl Hunter video on Life Lines  http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/?p=688. Well here is my back panel of my sweater to date.

 

 I am finally back to the point before the frogging. This sweater is going to take me awhile to knit. I always have two or three knitting projects I am working on. A little ADD maybe?