OAL 2015 Fail

Sometimes, a knitting project is just not meant to be. That was apparently the case with Vianne. All my knitting lately tends to be done during my commute (which involves me being a passenger in a car, then getting on a subway, and then a shuttle bus - with waiting in between) so it has to be very portable. This one, because it is knit seamlessly, was very awkward to knit standing up because of the weight of the back dangling from the tiny, 15-stitch wide front. Also, I kept having to pull the pattern out and check the lace pattern, and keeping the lace row # to row # mapping straight was an added thing to think about. . . Basically, I kept making mistakes and having to rip back.

Additionally, I had a million changes to make to this pattern, some for preference, some for fit. My body is very different from this designer's, so I knew there would be a lot of tweaking. And, I hated the mesh back, because I thought the sagginess it causes looks like a mistake, and it would drive me crazy. So, I drafted my own back panel, and what I should have done is just drafted the rest of it myself too, but I liked the look of the lace pattern at the front, so I went with it. As I was working the fronts, I was thinking it seemed like a lot of armhole room was being built. And then when you join the fronts and backs under the arm, you add a ton more stitches. I should have trusted my instinct at that point and ommitted the extra stitches, because I think it would have been perfect, but instead. . .



Monster armholes. If I ever become a body builder, these are the armholes for me, ha ha ha! But since I'm not, and since I wasn't interested in making big, baggy sleeves. . . I knew I'd have to rip back the work I'd done since adding those underarm stitches, and probably most of both fronts at all.

At this point, I felt frustrated with how many times I'd ripped things back, and having to take out two days worth of work was going to cause me to miss the OAL deadline anyway, so I decided to call it quits. Vianne and I just aren't meant to be! Took one final picture before ripping it all to bits. . .



However, even when a project fails, there's usually always something that you get out of it. In this case, there were two things. . . First, I really like this yarn! It's "Longmeadow" by Valley Yarns, and it's making me re-think my feelings on knitting cotton. This one is a blend, and it obviously makes all the difference. I'll definitely be using this yarn for something else in the future!

The other thing I got out of this project, I already mentioned in my last post, but as it's a huge deal to me, I'll say it again: The realization that I can totally draft my own knitting patterns from scratch! I'm still all excited about this! I think my next move in the knitting department will be to finish some UFO's, and then to try patterning one of my own designs. Very exiting!

So there were good things to come out of it, but I was still so sad to give up on this project because it meant I don't get to participate in OAL 2015. This is disappointing because I've already spent so much time working on the dress (not to mention on this fiasco of a cardigan!) and it's disappointing to then not get to enjoy being a part of it. . . But hey, at least I'll end up with a cute dress!