Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a safe and warm, but not too warm, holiday season! This is the extent of my decorating this year:
Which to be completely honest was still on my desk from last year. How pathetic is that.

Historically I have gone all out for Christmas but the past two Decembers I have been in Singapore, an ocean away from friends and family and without any space to decorate anyway. Living in a rented room certainly has its drawbacks. I hope by this time next year I have an apartment I can decorate.

Anyway, I sent a package to my family with a couple pair of mittens and my grandmother's shawl, so stressful deadline knitting is over for now. I stupidly forgot to photograph the second pair of mittens before packing them, which is a shame because I LOVED them. Hopefully my mom takes a few snaps when they arrive, before my brother-in-law wears them to change the oil in the car or something.

The rest of the gifts I am knitting don't need to be finished until March, when I head back to the US. I think my friends back home will be more than gracious about receiving a Christmas gift a bit late.

This is good because my knitting is seriously curtailed right now. My wrist has gotten worse, and four different doctors have given me four different ideas about what the problem is. It's got me thinking that I should just give up on the university clinic altogether and shell out the cash to go to a different office downtown.

I have been working on the Lily sweater (my Rav project page) because it's the largest gauge project I've got on the needles right now (sock knitting is killing my wrist). This sweater is worked in the round from the bottom up. Knit up to the armpit, then knit each sleeve, join all three pieces together and carry on. This is only the second sweater I've knit and the first bottom-up one, so perhaps it's not surprising that I made a big mistake.

This is the first sleeve, ready to be joined to the body. There's the lily of the valley pattern columns, and a triangle of purl stitches in between.


Here's the corresponding section of the body lily of the valley pattern, stopped at the same row of the chart as the sleeve, but there are only two purl stitches in between.


SIGH. I was supposed to work the last few increases of the body in the purl section. I read that clearly in the pattern and realized that I had done the increases differently, but didn't understand why those purl increases were necessary until it was staring me in the face. Lesson learned!

I will finish the second sleeve before ripping back the several inches of body that need to be redone. I am not emotionally ready to do it now hehehe.

Accounting for all the ripping I've had to do because of bad bobbling, the actual amount of knitting done is going to be about double the size of the finished garment!

2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry this has been a struggle Crystal. I will love & appreciate this sweater enough to make up for all the hassle it's been for you. :-D
    Nancy

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  2. Nancy - It's not a "struggle" it's a learning experience. ;-)
    I just hope the top fits since you aren't around to try it on.

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