Say it isn't so....

Summer Open Cardigan

Here I am happily working on my top down cardi and I hit a snag.   When I tried this baby on after finishing the body, it fit like a dream and I knew (knew!) that the rest was going to be a cake walk.   As instructed, I used a smaller needle to pick-up and knit the ribbed button band.    I could tell that something was not right as I was casting off but it was not until I tried it on again that I realized that the smaller needle size brought up the front by quite a bit.   In fact, it changed the whole shape of the cardi and not in a flattering way either.   The only hope is to rip out the button band and do it all over with a bigger needle.   Man...I hate it when that happens!

This is not the only knitting glitch I have encountered lately.    I have been, successfully, knitting these felted bags for the co-op, using  Paton's SWS and Bernat's Felting Wool.    After being asked for the pattern a couple of times, I decided to write it up and submit it to Knit Picks Independent Designer Program.   With that in mind, I gave a friend the pattern and some yarn and asked her to critique the pattern.   That went really well.   The next hurdle was figuring out how to create a PDF file.  Got that done (PDF for Dummies is a keeper).   Again, I thought the hard part was done.  All I had to do was knit up a sample in a Knit Picks yarn.  What I had not accounted for was the fact their yarn would felt differntly than the ones I had been using.   The fiber did felt in that it be came a solid piece, but shrank hardly at all which made it a much floopier bag than I am used to selling.   I have ordered more yarn and am going to try it doubled with a size bigger needle.   The other thing is that it did not felt in my new machine (a top loader) at all.   I tried it twice at home and then took it to a laundromat where the results were better but, as I said, too floopy.   With this next attempt, I will take it  straight to the laundromat in the hopes that I will get the nice firm fabric that I am used to.

Hubby and youngest are watching Gettysburg (T2 has to read Killer Angels for this summer).  I hate war movies.   Perhaps HGTV has something good to watch while I rip back that button band.