Death to the One Piece Sweater

[ricevermicelli]

I have ordered yarn, in sweater quantities, which I'm pretty excited about having. It's silly to buy yarn and then not make plans, so I've been trying to do that.

I'm working on this sweater now, top-down, and I just got the sleeves off the needles, thank god, because when there are 350 stitches on the needles, I kind of hate the entire process. The weight of the yarn kills my wrists, and then I get to the end of a skein, and realize that I am nowhere near binding off. Top-down design has its place, but you have to hate seaming a lot to knit a mid-thigh length, hooded sweater in one piece.

Also, I would like to never see this sweater, or anything like it ever again. I cannot turn around without running into that damn sweater. No matter what they do to the yoke, it remains fundamentally the same sweater, in which I would look like a cow.

Comments

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

I agree on the sweater design hate; that design is abominably popular. I've never done top-down; somehow, adding the sleeves and thus feeling like I'm on the home stretch sounds like a good antidote to the 350 stitches problem, which I'm not inclined to remove from my motivational arsenal just yet. If you can confidently look forward to reaching mid-thigh length, you are a more focused knitter than I.

I have also rediscovered a consuming passion for knitting (it comes and goes, probably with the likelihood that I can finagle two free hands with which to do something -- toddlers are much easier that way than infants), and am currently working on a cute tank top with lots of intricate cables. Since it's on size 2 needles (in the softest cotton/acrylic I've ever discovered), I probably ought to give up my hopes of wearing it this summer, but I'm not quite ready to give up yet.

Newt

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I can get to mid-thigh length. In aran/heavy-worsted weights. Eventually. All projects slow down considerably when they get too big to shove in my bag and take on the train. This is why the sock-a-week people are not sweater-a-month people.

I have finally taken the sleeves off the needles, and I have hopes that I'll finish the current sweater (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vodka-lemonade) by June. There will be lots of commuting time between now and then.

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

That one looks fun. Commuting time explains a lot about your confidence in project completion.

Newt

[c1.livejournal.com]

Is that design for people who can't afford enough buttons? What gives? I mean, I know I'm pretty fashion challenged, but still, that seems a bit weird.

[drwex]

I know nothing about knitting, but I'm really having a hard time picturing ANYTHING you could wear that would make you look like a cow.

Except, you know, a pantomime cow costume. Somehow the mental image of you and your husband doing this is amusing the hell out of me.

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pointing out the design flaw -- I considered that sweater design last fall because I thought it would work well over a nursing tank. But considering that my 30th birthday cardigan was still not complete on my most recent birthday, I wasn't in much danger of actually knitting it. :)

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it's a design flaw. There are plenty of people who look fine in those cardigans, they find them to model for pictures all the time. I just don't think it's good for me.