Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Sizing the sweater

In the midst of all the recent sock activity you might think I'd forgotten my Mariner sweater, but no! I've been trying to get the sizing right.

To recap:

My first attempt was going to be about 4" wider than me, which is sort of okay I guess, but not when you are tight on yarn to begin with.  Also I didn't really want a sloppy sweater.

So I cast on for a second Mariner - 1 needle size up*, 1 pattern size down - and had a look:


* Can I digress for a moment to discuss needle storage?  Because I have a great system and I still can't find needles half the time.  My double points are filed in a boxy thing on my desk, my circulars are filed in a special circular needle storage container, and my straights are filed in pouches in a deep dark corner of the basement because I almost never use them. Yet it took me about an hour to find the needles I wanted for this project - because while the plastic pocket I bought them in was filed, the needles themselves were not in them (because, as it turned out, I had come across the needle pouch at some point and filed it, then finished with the needles at some different point and filed them without ever putting them together).  Clearly I am a flawed person with too many knitting projects in progress.  Must address this, since there is no time-saving advantage to a good storage system if you just pile things on top of it.  You need time on your side if you're going to be knitting two sizes of every big project just because your decision-making skills are poor.

The second Mariner is definitely smaller, but maybe too much smaller? I wasn't sure.  I had to keep going, which is sort of annoying because time knitting Mariner 2 is time stolen from Mariner 1 if I have to go back to it.  But sort of hopeful because I made so many sloppy stitches in Mariner 1 it would be fabulous to have a fresh slate now that I know how to avoid sloppy stitches.


Yeah, this is going to give me a sweater that's maybe 2.25" bigger than me all around.  I can live with that.  And I can definitely live with fewer stitches on the needle and fewer rows to an inch and a way better shot at not running out of yarn.  Kinda makes up for that whole flawed-person thing, you know?

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