Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I Failed Miserably

Oh, the shame...I failed to finish all the #$% samurai hats by the deadline. I had until 5pm on Sunday. I was this close to being hysterical when I realized at 3pm that there was no way on God's green earth I was going to have them done.

So I did what any self respecting knitter would do. Rather than save my honor and finish them(better late than never), I cast on for the next project. I'm now working on the Husband's aran.

There has been considerable work on the aran so far. Not knitting work, mind you, but planning and much math.

I can't use published patterns for the Husband's sweaters. I've yet to find a designer that has designed a decent looking sweater for a man that is larger than an XL. The Husband has a 55" chest. The largest published pattern that I have come across is for a finished chest of 54". As unselfconscious as the Husband is about his body, I don't think he wants to look like a 'sweater girl' of the 40's.

I wanted to make sure that the Husband was going to wear this sweater, so he was very involved in the planning stages, whether he wanted to be or not. First I picked his brain on what type of sweater he wanted. Which meant that I had to drag out many books and magazines. We consulted Tara Manning's "Men in Knits" and Debra Mountford's book. We even consulted a handknit aran sweater that I've had for close to 15 years that I purchased(yes, purchased) on a trip to Bath, England.

The Husband decided that he liked a twisty Celtic knot looking pattern for the center panel and a diamond shaped cable with seed stitch centers for the side panels. I decided to add a simple 6 stitch cable to separate the different patterns.

The next step was to chart each individual panel, because the only patterns I could find for them were written out. I've never worked from a chart before, but I figured that this would be the best way to go. I knew that I would be consulting my notes a lot, and it would be easier to keep track of where I was.

After charting the Celtic knot and diamond pattern, it was time to swatch.

Will our heroine faithfully swatch? Will she get the Husband to Lambikins to pick out the yarn? Will she be able to figure out how many stitches to cast on?

Stay tuned.

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