Wednesday 6 August 2008

Phyllo Yoked Marquee

Ooof! Note the 100% progress bar on the right of this page?

My Norah Gaughan phyllo yoked pullover is finished (except sewing up the underarms seams). I should be celebrating, right?

A whole finished summer pullover worked in beautifully soft, lovely, purple Rowan Cotton Calmer. There should be pictures galore in this post, of me revelling in my finished knit, beaming in a very self satisfied way, right?

No, I am afraid not. I knew that the jumper would be too big (as I am reduced in size from a 46" chest to a 38" chest) but I hoped that it would work on me as an oversized tunic?

It doesn't work - when I lifted it over my head to try it on, it slipped down, whistled straight over my shoulders and shot down my arms (where I then extricated my hands) and sat sullenly around my waist looking like a warped phyllo waisted skirt, with bell sleeves jutting out like saddle bags.

Opps.

Now my other thought was that if it did not work on me, that it would be sufficiently well knitted to give away - sadly, I am not even sure that I can gift it or swap it in its current state.

Did I mention that my tension using circulars is tighter than when using straight needles? I sort of thought that it didn't look too bad while I was knitting.

However, when the jumper is on? The difference between the body, arms and yoke is extremely visible and I doubt that blocking will even it out.

What do you think - is it worth trying to see if I can salvage the jumper at least (to gift it onwards)? Or good grief, do I just bite the bullet and frog it?

A whole 46" chest, adult sized jumper. Wow. Owch. It is sitting on a bed at home, awaiting my decision.

I might do what all good knitwear stylists do - get some large bulldog clips and take some photos for posterity.

Then I'll take some more without bull dog clips so you can see the real deal and help me decide on its exit?

One day (over the rainbow) I might make something for myself that I can actually wear. It's not happened yet - the lace shaped tee that I made last autumn was only worn twice and now sits in a cupboard feeling very unloved.

3 comments:

Dotty said...

Seems like the knitting gods aren't liking us very much. I have a hemp shrug to give away if you're interested.

I think you should wash and block it before frogging - just to see if it looks ok to be gifted.

Team Knit said...

I definitely want to see pictures of the bulldog clipped shape, and the real shape! The sad truth is that it probably needs to be frogged. But I personally can't frog when the pain is fresh, so you might want to chuck it in a drawer for a while, and in a year, frog it good.

- Julie

Anonymous said...

Well done on seeing the whole thing through and getting it finished. That in itself is an achievement worth celebrating. If there was a gold medal for sticking power alone you win it hands down. What to do with it now is in some ways irrelevant - you have achieved the sweater. I have to confess to getting quite excited though at the idea of seeing photos from the magazine style photo shoot with bulldog clips and i do want to see a few shots with them in as evidence.