I finished the Vortex Street Pullover from Knitting Nature late Saturday, October 18th, just in time to wear it to Rhinebeck. I've worn it twice since then, which is pretty good for me. My previous sweaters with the notable exception of Tangled Yoke were all too uncomfortable or loose to wear. Many of them are still in pieces, because seaming is often the breaking point for me.
I used Woolease from the stash in order to make room for my Rhinebeck goodies. It made me feel good to get such a chunk of yarn out of the way. I'll probably make this again with a higher quality yarn (even the Plymouth Encore would be better), because I can't imagine this sweater being wearable except around the house within 2 years.
I was bad when I made this. I did no blocking. I just didn't have time. With our condo being possibly looked at whenever, I couldn't leave my knitting to block on the rug and I never managed to take up my friend on blocking it at her place. Simply ran out of time.
The best thing about this project was also the worst. I had to knit the cabled placket twice. Just reading the pattern (gauge part) indicated that the placket would be about 3 inches longer than the rest of the piece, so when I had 3 extra inches and 20 rows to go I ripped. The second attempt was done one needle size down (so I used 5 and 7 for the main piece and 5 and 6 for the middle) and still felt long. Seaming it in resulted in my winging the last 6 inches or so, and hoping that I wasn't going to have a bump or otherwise unfortunate bulge around the neck.
Well, I sort of do and someday I'll actually give this a real blocking and see if it can go away. It's relatively subtle and a much less painful flaw than I would have expected given my lack of practice.
Of course, I haven't been doing nothing since then. I started two projects on the bus ride to the festival and have been working on another one at home, all of which should be done and mailed this week except my travel project (really one of the other two projects should be my travel project).
Having projects with deadlines is not exactly new. Normally they are internal deadlines, so if I don't make them I don't have someone asking about the project. The biggest problem with deadline knitting is the roving eye. I've been looking at lace projects, cable projects, and imagining what yarns I would use for the Wrap Dress from Knit So Fine... it's a good thing I can knit and daydream at the same time or nothing would be getting done!
