Tour de France KAL
A few weeks ago I signed up for the Tour de France KAL. Since the Tour started officially yesterday I thought it would be a great time to do my first official blogging of my tour project.
I’m competing for the Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) which for knitalong purposes represents a challenging piece of knitting. The project doesn’t have to be completed by the end of the tour but you are supposed to pick something that is challenging for you. Either a new technique or a long languishing UFO that you need a challenge to finish.
My project is one part UFO and one part new skill. It is a resurrection of my Hiking Sweater from last year which I mentioned very briefly in this blog post.
When I originally started this sweater my goal was to design something (that’s the challenge part for me) that would be good for cycling and hiking in cold weather. For the yarn I chose an alpaca/wool blend so that it would be lightweight and very warm and I worked out a few features that I wanted to include like a kangaroo pocket and that was pretty much as far as I got.
When I decided to use this project for the Tour de France KAL I thought that my sweater had been languishing long enough and I must rip it out and start over because the reason I wasn’t working on it was that there were some things I didn’t like about it.
However, when I pulled it out of its box I found that I was much farther along on this sweater than I remembered.
Apologies for dirty mirror and blurry pic but you get the idea.
This is a lot of sweater to rip out folks! And… I can’t decide if I should. There isn’t really anything wrong with this part of the sweater but there are a few things I would change if I were to re-knit.
The main thing I am unhappy with is the trim treatment on the pocket. I did some kind of intarsia thing originally that looks like attatched i-cord but if I were to re-do it I would pick-up and do ribbing instead for a wider trim. I might also make the pocket a bit smaller.
One other thing I would change would be to make the whole sweater about 1″ shorter and use short-rows to make the back longer instead.
Am I being too picky? Is my real challenge here to live with imperfection? Feel free to give me your opinions!
Since I couldn’t decide whether to rip or continue on I re-started the sleeve (the old one was too tight so I took it out).
Unassuming folded cuff
Unfolds to become a fingerless mitt for chilly hands!
I also finished up the actual design sketch including all the nerdy features that I’m planning to include.
I’m really excited about this Knitalong! I’m on Team Rabobank and in a strange coincidence our team colors are orange and blue!
Go Team Rabobank!
July 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Rip it! Life is too good to live with sub-par knits!
July 7th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Love the cuffs! I say don’t rip if you think you’ll still wear it, and save the mods for a future “Perfect Sweater”! But if you won’t ever wear it, then definitely rip!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:18 am
I am a firm believer that a longer sweater is always a better sweater. While short rows in the back are an awesome addition, I always think my sweaters adjust and shrink a bit with body movement — especially if layering underneath (and added circumference) is involved. The pocket, though, seems as if you will only have to rip to where pocket meets body at the top and the pocket itself? Then rip that and re-do it.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:28 am
hi alli, those cuffs are an amazing idea. i can’t wait to see what other nerdy details you come up with. about the pocket, i like how the trim on the pocket is narrow, it complements the wide ribbing. i think the smaller trim is much more slimming. not sure that’s necessary or even matters on a hiking sweater but still. which brings to me another fact, this sweater needs to be comfortable!! so if you don’t think you’ll be comfortable in it as is, then most definitely frog it!
-anna
July 7th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Brilliant! I love the cuff detail, and it’s so great to find you’re farther along than you thought. Here’s my two cents about the modifications: Do the ribbing on the edges of the pocket by picking up sts with a small needle and just add a few rows of ribbing, then tack them down at either end. You’ll get the broader blue stripe and the ribbed effect without having to tear anything out. And for the short rows, why not perform a little surgery? I’d clip a stitch at either side of the back, roughly where darts would go, over your kidneys. Then I’d catch the free sts and tear out between them, picking up the lower sts and putting the uppers on a holder. Go ahead and work a short row or two in between, then graft the new fabric to the original upper sts - voila! You could do this in a coupl of different places for a nice subtle back-lengthening.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I second kate’s suggestions. And how funny, about the colors…when I saw the picture, the first thing I thought “wow, that’d be perfect colors if she were on Team Rabobank”. I really like your cuffs…I should try that on a sweater sometime, because my hands are always cold.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:18 am
i personally love the kangaroo pocket (and its size) and the trim you did, but i think that you should be happy with the finished product. if you don’t love it 100%, will you be less likely to wear it? will it eat away at you? is it really worth it to rip back when you’ve already made so much progress? i happen to like it just as it is (totally love the cuff of the sleeves), but i know what it’s like to not be happy with an FO. at this point, even if i didn’t love it, i’d be too lazy to rip back and make those fixes, so i’d just press on. good luck!
July 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I love those cuffs! I might steal that idea for my next cardigan, if you don’t mind.
And I say rip and re-knit. The last (and only the 2nd) sweater I knit for myself is never worn because I just wanted to finish the damn thing so I blew through it, ignoring all signs that it bigger than I wanted. If I could do it all over again, I would make so many changes.