Gauging my disappointment – sweater disaster.
I thought it was about time I put my twisty yarn around needles antics towards making something wholly encompassing and warm – a new sweater. It’s something that I always meant to do but never actually got around to doing – too much risk, too much time, too big a chance of failure. But, then, I had some yarn. About a simple, not too long sweater’s worth of heavily discounted, slightly strange yarn.
It’s taken me a while to find the right pattern – something that I have enough yarn for and that I don’t hate were the only two criteria, but they were surprisingly difficult conditions to fill. Eventually I settled on the ‘Yoke Detail Sweater’ from the Spring/Summer 2009 Debbie Bliss Magazine, and cast on.

A sweater in the process of being recognised as a failure
I didn’t like the rolled stockinette edges, so I replaced those with some mistake rib rows and then knit happily on, checking and re-checking gauge. 24 sts per 4″ – perfect. I am spot on target, knit, knit, knit. Recheck: still 24 perfect stitches per perfects 4″. Perfect, perfect. I just need a perfect 30 rows per perfect 4″ to be perfectly perfect… But I am getting 36.
I don’t know why my row gauge is so off. I’d feel quite confident in adding the extra rows to make up the length, but I know that this will leave me too short on yarn, and as Rowan Soft Baby, in a shade described so aptly by HarleenQuinzel to be “just about the color of glow-in-the-dark stuff when it is not glowing” is long since discontinued, there is pretty much nil chance of me being able to get more.
I feel really quite disheartened, but I suppose it was just not meant to be. Curse my stupid short fat stitches!
UPDATE
The sweater of failure is saved! As you can see in the comments there are apparently still balls of soft baby kicking around. Knit on!






























