Monday, January 17, 2011

Adam's Baseball Jersey of Doom

It is finished.

 

Would one say that I'm fully happy with it? No. But it's over now and I really don't want to think about how difficult this thing was to put together. The knitting was the easy part. Blocking, a cinch. Everything blocked to exactly the right measurements. The assembly, well, it started to take its toll. 

Here is my issue with this pattern (I think we all knew this was coming): there are no instructions on assembly whatsoever. You cannot expect a person to just magically put this thing together correctly without even a hint of how to go about it. There are schematics for the front/back and sleeve pieces but no schematics on a finished, put together sweater. Not even a measurement on how wide the head opening should be. Oh yeah, and that error in the saddles? You need to decrease every row not every other row. It will not fit. Let me give you some measurements. The saddle of the shoulder will measure a total of 8.75". The top of the neck measures a total of 13.25". Am I the only one realizing that even if you start seaming on the little decreased piece on each side (only 1.5") that will still leave an extra 1.25" leftover with no where to go? Ok, and what about the shoulder decreases? That should be a total of 8.25" which will be seamed to a piece that should measure 7.25". Hello Mr. Discrepancy. 

 

I'm pointing to where the saddle should begin to be seamed on the shoulder. And I realize it's weird that my ring is on my index finger but my fingers get real skinny in the winter and my rings fall of, so I've switched fingers for a bit.

Either way, I guess I should be happy that at least Adam's head will fit through the sweater now.

 

I've re-blocked it to measurement (again). I don't know if I'll be particularly sad if he doesn't wear this sweater much. Despite all the work I've put into it, I'm kind of angry with the sweater. I think the thing that makes me so angry is that my brother's sweater, knit from 2500 miles away without ever actually seeing my brother and using only my merely adequate math skills, fits like a freaking glove. It's kind of heartbreaking. On the bright side, I joined the Knits Men Want group on Ravelry to get some help with this sweater, entered a giveaway and won one of the samples knit in this book (the green one). So at least Adam will have one handknit sweater this year. 

On a note regarding the yarn, I love Wool of the Andes! It's definitely not as rough as I thought it may be and was very hardy. I only found a couple knots in a few skeins and considering I used a total of maybe 13 skeins, I think that's doable. If you're looking for a reasonably priced wool to use for a garment, I would go for this one. 


Pattern: Baseball Jersey by Bruce Weinstein
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Onyx Heather and Arctic Pool Heather
Needles: #7
Began: November 20
Completed: January 16, 2011 


And since you've now read through all the complaining, how about I announce the blogiversary winner? 

The winner is #23


Thank you for your readership. I'll be trying to contact you this week or you can email me so I can send you your prize!  Happy knitting!
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16 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2011 at 5:59 PM

    Listen girl, it still look darn pretty. We all have messed up projects, but somehow... they turn out semi-okay!

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  2. Gracey is not my name....January 17, 2011 at 6:20 PM

    It looks great!

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2011 at 7:10 PM

    Well I have to say it sounds like you learned something. The sweater looks great and now you have an EPIC knitting tale!

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  4. Kitten With a WhiplashJanuary 17, 2011 at 7:35 PM

    The sweater looks great, and I'd like to start a big round of applause for your determination and resourcefulness. CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

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  5. saraJanuary 17, 2011 at 7:52 PM

    I'll join in that applause and add cheers. Huzzah!

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2011 at 2:06 AM

    How exciting to win!!! Thanks so much. It's my first blog contest win ever. :D

    I love the sweater even if it gave you so much trouble... I hope it does get worn, as I'm sure it looks good on him.

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  7. loriJanuary 18, 2011 at 8:42 AM

    I:

    salute you
    admire you
    commiserate with you
    thank you especially for the comment on wool of the andes, which i'd wondered about
    :)

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  8. JaceyJanuary 18, 2011 at 9:32 AM

    I'm glad the yarn was good to work with for you. I'm sorry the sweater didn't turn out as perfectly as you wanted, but it looks really nice, and I hope he gets some wear out of it.

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  9. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2011 at 10:29 AM

    Great sweater -- worth the sweat and tears!

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  10. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    it looks super, well done powering through all that finishing! I would love to try Wool of the Anges sometime.

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  11. melissaJanuary 19, 2011 at 7:46 AM

    hooray you!!
    way to show that sweater who's boss.

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  12. CamiJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    I think it looks awesome!

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  13. cmvJanuary 25, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    wow! well i'd say it looks absolutely flawlessly seamed from here. what a wonderful sweater! congrats!

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  14. jeannieMarch 15, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    Ok - I'm not sure this will help, but in sewing, you have to ease the fullness of shoulders and sleeves in order to accommodate the bulk of the shoulder.
    You do this by pinning the armhole of the sweater to the edge of the sleeve, with the right sides together, then finding the center (top)of the sleeve and pinning it to the top of the shoulder part of the sweater. Then you have all this gappy stuff (material or fabric)hanging out along where the sleeve meets the armhole. So you take the middle of the baggy gappy part and you fold it and the armhole over your finger and pin. Then you take the next section find the halfway point, fold it over and pin. You keep going like this till all the fullness of the sleeve is kind of worked in flat or gathered in flat to the armhole. When you stitch it together it should have a very flat "line" right at the stitching place (or seam allowance in sewing).
    It's really hard to describe any better, but I bet YouTube has videos of setting in sleeves in sewing that would give you the visuals of what I'm saying.
    I hope that helps some -if not with this sweater, the next one.
    It's really a nice garment regardless of the challenge.
    Good luck. :0)

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  15. LynnMarch 21, 2011 at 8:44 AM

    I'm working on this sweater now, with the same yarn and I'm just now to the saddle shaping decreases. I've measured as I've gone along, but when I got to this point, it's had grown! It seems to be stretching so if I continue knitting per the instructions, it'll be 3inches too long! Did you experience this or I'm having a freaky problem. BTW~my book says to decrease every row, but doesn't give any instruction for it. I don't know if I should continue knitting assuming it's going to go to it's normal shape when blocked or if I should adjust the length now. Any suggestions?? (besides don't make this sweater. ;) )

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  16. Elizabeth SouleOctober 17, 2011 at 9:53 AM

    I just started seaming this sweater last night and have 2 more nights to finish and am already worrying... Your post confirmed for me that the pattern, the blocking and sewing don't match up. I'm off to look at YouTube videos to see if I can make anymore sense of this. Thanks for blogging about it, my frustration has been confirmed.

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