Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Sweater Saga


Good Wednesday to you. Yesterday was a wild weather day on the Great Plains. My brother in Montana reported a prairie blizzard with more than six inches of snow. Here in southeast Nebraska, the wind blew a gale as the temperature hit almost 90 degrees. We adjourned to the basement early in the evening when the tornado warning sirens sounded. I grabbed my knitting bag, computer, and phone. A severe thunderstorm brought hail and rain. Luckily the storm didn't last long and the hail didn't do any damage here. I do need to pick up a few extra flashlight batteries just in case. 

Anyway on to the knitting. I am linking with Kat and the Unravelers to post about knitting and reading. By the time I finished the Anker's Sweater it began to feel like a saga. When I finished reached the end of the stockinette on the second sleeve, it was about an inch shorter than the first one. Although I marked all of the decreases with stitch markers, I miscounted somewhere. Most of the time I fix mistakes but the decreases make a faux underarm seam that are not visible. I couldn't face reknitting the sleeve so I added extra rows and added the ribbing. 

When I blocked the sweater the sleeves and body grew in length. I ripped back and reknit the ribbing on both sleeves although as I look at this photo the sleeves still look a little long. I plan to wear the sweater and see if I really want less length in the body. That would be a relatively easy fix. I sewed on one set of buttons that I didn't like so I took them off and replaced them with another. I didn't put buttonholes all the way down the front. I wish I had but not enough to reknit the sweater body. I do like the color and fabric of the yarn and will enjoy wearing the sweater. Such is knitting. 

My children sent me a yarn advent set as last year's birthday gift. I enjoyed opening all the yarn packages in December. Ever since I have been pondering a project for the yarn. Vera, with her beautiful project brought the Guernsey Wrap to my attention. The textured stitch patterns are well suited to this wooly wool. I modified it to scarf width because I am not likely to wear a rectangular wrap. I modified the ribbed section to a broken rib. This first section of colors reminds me of the colors of sea glass. The shades will get progressively deeper and I will have yarn leftover for a hat or mittens.   

I finished the hat with a little yarn leftover so that is in the gift bag. As we like to say, "yarn chicken is great when I win."

*We will celebrate Easter this weekend with hope. Others will celebrate Passover. If you celebrate, I wish you a happy hope-filled time with family and friends. If not, I wish you a Happy Spring, in whatever way it comes to your corner of the world. 

Ravelry Links

Anker's Cardigan

Hat

Guernsey Scarf


* Don't ask me what happened to change the background color of the text in this paragraph. I have tried everything I can think of to fix it and am not able to do so. The mysteries of Blogger





9 comments:

  1. your sweater looks lovely!! I love the color and the way it fits! I would not rip out to add buttonholes (eep!!) I'm working on a baby sweater (number two) and a never ending afghan that hopefully will be done.

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  2. You deserve a meda1 for rebuilding that sweater!!! My goodness. I admire those knitters 1ike you, that knit sweaters often enough to know how to re do them if they are 1ess than perfect

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  3. I do like your Ankers cardigan. In the photo, it looks just right and quite comfortable, despite being a saga project. Your Guernsey scarf also looks just right to me, with lovely texture and color. We've got a couple of days of 80-degree temperatures (which is too hot too quickly as far as I'm concerned) so I'm wondering if we'll return to more seasonable weather with strong storms. Wishing you much hope, this weekend and beyond.

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  4. Jane!! what a fabulous take on the Guernsey Wrap to make it a scarf and those advent yarn colors are just so yummy! It's a fun, soothing knit, isn't it? Your sweater turned out so nice. I love the color and I really like just the few buttons at the top. As Bonny noted, it is hot here (80's) which is too much too soon. I think rain is in our forecast for tomorrow. I don't want winter temps, but I don't want summer temps yet either.

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  5. What a pretty sweater finish! That color is perfect on you and the length looks fine, too. We had our 2nd 80 degree day yesterday and it will be a while before we have another one. meanwhile, I love your take on the Guernsey Wrap(scarf); what a lovely way to use those Advent skeins. Wishing you a happy and spring-like Easter weekend!!

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  6. I think that sweater turned out beautifully! The color and fit look perfect!

    Happy Easter to you and your family, Jane!

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  7. You deserve a special "and yet she persisted" award for your cardigan! XOXO I'm so glad you were able to hunker down in your basement during the storm -- and that you suffered no damage. Severe storm season can be so frightening! I love your advent yarn -- and the clever way you've decided to use it!

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  8. I'm sorry your sweater gave you so many headaches, but all that extra work was clearly worth it because it looks wonderful on you! That color suits you so well. The scarf is knitting up very nicely too; I love the more subtle shades in your yarn.

    I'm glad to hear you escaped the scary weather without any serious damage. We haven't had anything that bad, thank goodness, but we hit 80 yesterday and then today I got caught in some very cold rain on my walk -- and there's talk of snow on Monday. I'm really hoping we stop this roller coaster of weather soon.

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  9. Your sweater is lovely and I'm so glad you made it through! I hope you get many wears out of it!! And that scarf looks beautiful... I can't wait to see how it grows with your yarn.

    So glad you stayed safe from the tornados and that you had your knitting with you. It's nice to feel prepared!

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