Only as Perfect as Life

I finished Gregg's sweater. Kind of. I listened to Brenda Dayne of Cast on and addressed the issue of my mistakes in the end of the sweater, ripping them out and re-doing those parts - I felt very empowered by the ability to revise this garment. I got it finished and bound off this weekend, and tried it on Gregg - he's such a good sport! - the bottom of the sweater was sagging low, and the back of the sweater was riding high - things weren't really lining up - I took it off of him and tried laying it out; I knew that when I had put the sleeves in that they were off a little bit; and I didn't think it'd matter (I had figured this out a few rows into the joining process which, I am finding, is somewhat difficult to explain in words) - Anyway, this means that the sleeves aren't lined up centered on each side, and it also means the center part (the right and left panels) is not in the exact middle - which in turn, made the collar not exactly in the center... it looks OK - just a little frumpy and I'm sad that it didn't turn out amazing. I did a pretty good job of the knitting, and the yarn is beautiful... it just is a little upsetting to try to make something so charged with feeling for so long, spanning so many things (I was working on this piece at the foot of my dad's bed the last days I spent with him before his death... I worked on the sleeves on the plane flight home to bury my dad... the piece was to be for Gregg's birthday and too many things happened that forced me to miss my deadline back in February) -

The good news: I am not giving up! I am STILL in love with yarn, with creating, with knitting and learning. I don't think that I have learned enough to actually pay MORE attention to the details, but I think that comes in time. Being a "new" knitter of only a few years, I have a long way to go.

I am working now on a tiny baby sweater - finished the back last night - it's way adorable. I did a little modification on the binding off at the top (not paying attention again) but I made notes in my pattern, and I am figuring at the end, what's one stitch difference in the grand scheme of a sweater!... we'll see when it is assembled.

Gregg loves his sweater - it still needs a zipper - maybe putting the zipper in will miraculously fix the thing.

Kyle