For all my exceedingly limited knitting time I still find myself compelled to rip back and start over when my knitting isnt close to perfect. My case in point: the Spidey cardigan that I have been working on for a year.
My son insisted that I do the intarsia on the sleeves and not do them plain (oh, it would have been so much faster-sigh). First I printed out graph paper, then I brought the pattern to knit night at a bar down the street and spent the evening charting. This way it was big, readable and I was more familiar with the design structure. I also had to measure the sleeve length and compare it to the sleeves on one of his sweatshirts so I knew the right length. Then I had to figure out how many rows the pattern went and measure that length and then subtract that measurement from the total length to determine where to start the intarsia section. The pattern was written to knit the sleeves from the shoulder down but I prefer the sleeve join better from the wrist up. It just meant a lot of measuring and math.
Then finally I started knitting the intarsia and I totally blanked -- I stranded the body color across the back. Whoops! No good at all. It raised the design element up, cinched the stitches together and was wreaking havoc with the width. After finding a few brain cells left from before children, I realized that the body color should be done with two separate balls, but that meant ripping back some 20-30 rows. I hemmed and hawed but ultimately desided that it had to be done.
I started over on the intarsia with the separate balls of the body color and it is moving along at a good pace. I hope to have both sleeves done in a week. Then I will have the fun job of lengthening the sweater body as it just isn't long enough for as much effort as I have put in. Cursed Kitchener at times though isn't it.
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