I finally finished the V-neck Boxy. I used delightful fingering weight yarn from Royal Bee Yarn Co. in a soft-ish 100% wool. It took a little over a month to knit, and holy crap, it was A Lot of knitting. The construction wasn’t too terribly fiddly. The shoulder pattern was a nice detail. Short rows are not my favorite, but I like the end result of the padded shoulder effect. I was well aware that I may not have enough yarn to complete the sweater since it seems to be three miles wide. I decided to play it safe and knit the first ball, then knit the neckband and sleeves. Once they were done, I was free to use every inch of the remaining yarn. I am not a cropped-top kind of girl. With former childbearing and a newfound love of Hostess Powdered Donets, I am definitely not a cropped-top aficionado. Since the top is basically a rectangle, the sides hang down lower than the front or back hems. I really like the effect, but I would still have liked it a titch longer. Well, I played yarn chicken, and I lost. I was supposed to knit the body to 16 inches long from the underarms, then begin eight rows of 1×1 rib. I got to about 15.5 inches and realized I wasn’t going to make it. I tried to decide on a hem (ripping out the hem four times, at 329 stitches each, minimum). I finally decided to say “screw it” and knit the whole thing in stockinette and did a folded hem sewn down. It curled up like what. I washed and blocked her, stretching her within an inch of her life. I wanted 1. for the body to be as long as possible and 2. for the hem to lay flat instead of curling up. I don’t know if I mentioned my absolute love and devotion to my blocking wires. I don’t know why I took so long to buy some, and now I love them. Prior to blocking it, I tried it on, and it looked terrible. The fabric was stiff, had no flowiness, and the sweater was too short. As we all know, blocking is magical wizardry, and it did, in fact, work out the bugs. The sweater is still too short if I am 100% honest with myself. I wore it today, in fact, and while it was perfectly nice, I felt like I had to suck my stomach in all day.
What went right? I love the color and (post-blocking) fabric. It has structure, but it has a nice drape to it, too. The sweater is done. I adjusted the sleeve length and added about 3 inches. I now have full-length sleeves instead of the 3/4 length that the pattern calls for. I much prefer that. I wasn’t sure how I would like the look of the finished v-neck, but I really do like it. It is tight enough that my camisole doesn’t show, but it doesn’t block in my face/ neck.
What went wrong? Running out of yarn. I don’t think I would have needed a full extra skein, but I needed a lot more than I had. I really had to improvise on the hem, and it could have been a disaster. It. Took. Forever. To. Knit. That was a whole heaping lot of knitting for just one sweater. It took over a month to complete. Add to that, it was a metric ton of fingering weight knitting. Good lord, I thought I would never bind off. I think the hem situation worked out, but I am very curious to see how it goes as I wear it more. I could roll up again. We will see how it goes.
My final review is that it is a great sweater. I don’t think I will knit it again, but I really do like the finished sweater. Oddly, I am not sure I will keep it due to the Oompa-Loompa-esque shape it gives me, but we will see. I will definitely seek out that yarn at future yarn events/ outings. Ms. Joji knows her stuff, and I think she will put out more beautiful patterns like this.
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 