knitting is a hereditary disease

Christmas knitting lesson #28

Posted on 12/23/2007 by Andrea | Comments (0)
Filed under : Knitting

, originally uploaded by AMK.

This photo is sort of indicative of how my day went yesterday. I've learned my lesson. Oh yes, I've learned my lesson. The lesson is this: if you're knitting a sweater for someone for Christmas, by all means DON'T leave the finishing to the last minute. Especially if it has miles and miles of seaming that needs to be done, set in sleeves, and the whole nine yards.

I'm not entirely sure Brad will be able to wear his sweater for Christmas. Not really because my tapestry needle is broken and I don't have another one and I don't want to brave the snowy, icy roads to go get one (I've been sewing with the blunt stub of this needle), but because after setting in the first sleeve and having Brad try it on, I learned that the sleeve is about four inches too long.

This is the sort of setback I usually expect to experience in knitting a sweater, so in retrospect I don't understand how I could have thought I wouldn't have a problem like this with this sweater. Yes, I did a lot of pinning pieces together and holding them up to the husband, but nothing can quite compare to actually sewing something together and then trying it on.

So I'll keep plugging away at this and hope I get it done in time for Christmas.

In the meantime, I do have several finished items to share:

More mini mittens. I can't believe how fun it is to see all the other mini mittens you guys are making. All the different sock yarns you're using, all the different colors, and the different ways you're choosing to make them. So fun to see and so inspiring. Maybe after Christmas I'll do a roundup of all the mini mittens I can find out there. In the meantime, you all are inspiring me to make more of them myself.

The Yarni baby cardigan. Done and green-square-buttoned. Thanks for the input; the buttons were a big hit.

Finished cabled mittens. I was nervous about giving these to my coworker because they didn't look as impressive as the baby sweater (which was going to another coworker), but I needn't have worried. She was thrilled with them.

So the holiday knitting isn't going badly, on the whole. It's just this sweater that's trying to kill me.