So maybe I was a little Hasty

I’ve had a bit more time for contemplation. I’ve had a week to sulk, and a week to consider what to cast-on next. Then this morning, I measured the gauge on my yet to be frogged Calm Down Sweater. Are you all giggling?

My row gauge is in fact correct and it matches the specified gauge of 30 rows. My stitch gauge is on the tighter side of 24 sts rather than 22 (but that part doesn’t matter). I’ve gone back to the pattern page on Ravelry and checked out more of the finished projects, and it appears… my cardigan is on track.

The sleeves are deep. I’ve read a few more people’s project pages, and they say the same.

See how Lily Kate the designer (and also model in real life) has her hands up above her head. The sleeve depth is a bit deceiving, not intentionally I’m sure.

Thanks to ‘Knitting is so fun’, (sorry I don’t know your real name), for your comment about altering the sleeve depth. I have found that, whenever I try to alter a pattern, it never works out for me. And maybe I’m not prepared to rip things out a million times to make it perfect, I’m not that kind of knitter. For me knitting is supposed to be somewhat relaxing, I want it to be right to start with, if not the first, then definitely the second time.

So maybe… I’m thinking about continuing. I’ll probably decrease the sleeves at a faster rate, so that I don’t get total batwings, but they’re still going to be huge, and I have to be okay with that. The body will be better fitted, so it shouldn’t end up being a sack on me, hopefully.

You see, in this week of contemplation, I wasn’t so upset about putting the cardigan aside. I was bummed because I still really wanted this cardigan. I’ve been looking at what to knit next and I can’t move past this, I really want some plain wardrobe staples. So let’s see.

The Un-Calm Down Cardigan

So I haven’t told you, but I’d already restarted knitting The Calm Down DK cardigan once. It happened after Knit Night one week a few weeks ago, when something Karen said about row gauge triggered me. Long story short – my row gauge didn’t match the front left piece I was knitting, and I restarted the cardigan on smaller needles.

The new row gauge on 3.5mm needles still didn’t match the gauge of 22 sts on 32 rows (it had hardly changed), it was still in fact close to the gauge I acheived with 4mm needles which was about 28 rows, but the fabric was denser and I thought that it would be okay. Surely I couldn’t knit this on smaller needles?!

Fast forward to this weekend when I joined the fronts to the back after the armholes, I laid my knitting down over some of my knits from my wardrobe to compare.

The sleeves were going to be larger than my Pressed Flowers Sweater… yes that is a bad thing

Rather than investing anymore knitting time into this cardigan. I’m calling it… it’s being ripped out. I may never attempt to knit this cardigan again. I don’t think I’ve ever given up on a garment, but I’m glad I’ve made this decision at this point rather than thinking it was still going to work out, it’s not.

Good news is, I’m ready for a new cast-on for October 🙂 the next cast on has to be a winner.