Finished: One Annoying Sweater (Preview)

Work travel craziness continues here at casa Clio. Sewing is at an all time low, but I seem to be knitting up a storm. Travel has that effect on my creative output.

I finally finished the sweater that I began knitting during my epic fail weekend back in December. I've come to call it my "annoying sweater" because it's taken so long and, well, there were multiple annoying things about it.

Amime

This is Kirsten Johnstone's Amime sweater, a "Wonderfully light, open weave knitted texture – perfect for popping over a tee, dress or blouse. Knit this generously sized top down with unique wide neck with raglan sleeves for minimal finishing." The pattern is easy enough, so I really wasn't expecting trouble. But trouble there was. Here is my list of petty grievances - not with the pattern but mostly with the yarn...

First, one of the two called-for yarns is Habu Textiles' Kibiso Silk. It feels like barbed wire when you knit it. I can't imagine how it would feel on. I promptly decided not to continue with this yarn.

Next, I replaced the offending yarn with a Shibui 60% silk/40% mohair blend yarn. I thought it would look nice, yet somehow I missed the apparently well circulated memo on mohair: it is near impossible to frog or unknit. I learned this the hard way. 

Another lesson I learned the hard way is that the other called-for yarn - Habu Textiles' silk with stainless steel core - has no stretch or give whatsoever. I knew this, but did not quite appreciate the implications. Even though my neckline rows were on gauge and had plenty of mechanical stretch, the cast on row was so inflexible that it wouldn't stretch to fit over my head. Thankfully, I learned this only 10-14 rows in. Awful frogging ensued.

Additionally, this sweater was knit on circular needles and I failed - again - to recognize the impact of the non-stretchy yarn. It knit just fine, but after snaking around the cable of the circular needle, it was impossible to get back onto the needle part to knit the next row. I solved this by knitting the stitches with the correct size needle, but using a smaller needle to knit the stitches off of. Thank goodness I own an interchangeable circular needle set. 

Penultimately, because of my cast on problems, I used the stretchiest bind off in my repertoire. It was still too inflexible. So, I had to unpick the bind off, get the stitches back onto the needle and bind off again, deliberately keeping things very loose. This is an awful job.

Finally, now I think my bind off is too loose. 

Here's a better picture of what the stitches look like.

Aside from my knitting issues, I'm not sure I really blocked this sweater well and it's totally my fault. I set it to soak and walked away for 20 minutes which turned into several hours. I only remembered the soaking sweater at past-my-bedtime and hastily pinned it to my blocking mat. We'll have to see once I decide to wear it.

Have you ever had a project that was incredibly annoying and yet somehow you got thru it?  Did you end up liking it in the end or was it forever a black sheep?