Need A Plan

"Do I look anxious?"

Here it is, my beautiful wool sweater. Early last week I came to a point where I was caught up and suddenly had a block of time open, and didn't know what to do with it. It was an instant panic as I did the "on spin cycle" of things I could fill it with; because these things were only in my head rather than ranked on a list, my mind just went from one to another and couldn't land on anything. A trip downstairs where the sweater lay with its last seam ready to be sewn made me realize that this is ridiculous: the sweater would rise to the top, be my focus for the week. That seam up the side and down the sleeve took a surprisingly long time to stitch though, more than one sitting. The compression gloves do seem to help keep my fingers from cramping while doing that kind of hand sewing.

finished measurements provided

Holding my breath, I tried it on. Whew! It fits in all the important places . . . except the sleeves are about an inch too long. Hmmm. I went back and looked at the photo with the instructions, a woman turned a bit sideways and holding up one hand to her chin and look at that. Even with her arm bent, the sweater came well past her wrist, about the same as mine. Since I'd checked my finished sleeve measurement against that in the directions, I now knew this was a feature, not an error. This got me thinking about blocking, if I could ease the sleeves shorter that way. The neckline was a bit wonky as well, so blocking might solve that too. Off I went on a google; in all the knitting of sweaters I'd done in my younger days, I don't ever remember blocking one and only had the briefest of info about it in my head.

Well, I learned a lot, not just how to but why block a sweater from OliveKnits.com. In the post How To Block A Sweater, she explains that not only does blocking allow you to adjust your finished piece to the proper shape, but soaking the stitches "makes an enormous difference in the way a garment feels, drapes and wears." Mine could certainly use that. This worsted weight wool that I used while not scratchy or particularly stiff, is HEAVY, so much heavier than the almost airy in comparison commercial wool sweater of a thinner yarn I was wearing that day. She says that an unblocked sweater looks anxious while blocking helps it to relax. She adds, "This settling process evens-out inconsistencies and encourages the stitches to get comfortable. Not only will it help hide flaws (hooray!), but it it will smooth and help to define the stitch pattern." Sounds a bit like the advantages of washing or at least steaming your finished quilt.

What I hadn't thought about is something I know about quilting yardage but holds true for yarn as well: by the time it gets to you, it has been through many processes where it can pick up dirt. A gentle wash will rinse that away. Ditto with any excess dye. And those fit issues I mentioned? She confirms that "A sweater that doesn’t appear to fit quite right might just need a good soak to reach its full potential." So I guess I have one more step before I can call this sweater done! But at least I can now move forward on the next knitting project, a scarf from the yarn unraveled from a cowl I never could make work though I tried several times to reseam the ends different ways to get the drape shown in the photo. I don't like taking out stitches or undoing major parts of projects but this yarn is too beautiful to let languish in something I'll never wear. The rest of my plan still needs to get written down on a to do list.