The Big Reknit

One of the reasons why I started this blog was to get going on reknitting projects that hadn't worked.  At last I've begun one of them!  If I've learnt anything this year, it's that you can't plan your knitting:  you just have to go with it and knit whatever whim takes you.  It's definitely a mood thing!

My mother knitted me a cardigan once, one of the last things she knitted for me, which, I'm sad to say, just didn't work.  She used to always knit wonderfully bright jersies which I loved, all sorts of colours that really suited me.  And that fitted well.  In effort to make the cardigan warm, she double-stranded the wool which made it hell to knit.  It also made it very stiff (not one for tension squares or correct needle size, my mum).  The body was rather tight and the sleeves - I can't describe what happened with the sleeves.  The armholes were just huge.  In an attempt to fix this up, my mother sewed in a big seam which meant that I had a big clump of wool under my armpits.  So not comfortable!  Also the sleeves were too short.  But the buttons were lovely.  And the colour is delicious - a really rich cream.  

Several years after my mother had gone off to Better Things, I found the courage to pull the whole thing apart (which felt sacrilegious, somehow) and knitted a pattern I found in a magazine.  One of the first things I knitted from a magazine, I think!

This is what it looked like:

To be honest, not much wrong with it, aside from the appalling sewing up of seams (I hadn't learnt magical mattress stitch yet, which I think is the best thing since sliced bananas) and a minor error which isn't noticeable.  However, it came out a tad small.  The size is probably correct (I did a tension square!) but it was too small in MY eyes.  I need things to be a little longer on the hip to be flattering.  The correct yarn for the pattern is Sirdar's Big Softie, so I think I might reknit it again one day - but with the correct yarn.  And a much bigger size so that it's got a lot of swing!

I also had a bit over to make a scarf:

....which, needless to say, was so big and huge and fat that I didn't like wearing it.  So that's coming apart too!

Do other people have the same hassle I do when unravelling???!!!  Everything all knotted and a great big mess.  Why doesn't it just come apart as easily as it was knitted??!!

This is a bit of an overly easy project that could be doomed to fail - no pattern, no inkling, wool that doesn't know what it is...!  I truly have no idea.  It feels a bit cheap, like acrylic and, of course, double-stranded, who knows what it should be knitted as (aran, chunky, unaccountable...).  Far too difficult to even try to unstrand it and start again.  I have a picture in my head of what it will look like but no guarantees that it actually will.  I got the idea from this Rowan ad:

She's a bit blurry, but you get the idea...

Obviously it won't drape like this as this is divinely soft and expensive silk or something.  I just love the idea of knitting a bunch of scarves, in different directions and no shaping, armholes or ribs in sight!  Easy TV knitting.

Check out my fab, colourful knitting needles!  (A gift from a knitting magazine, of course!)

If I'm lucky, I might get this project done quickly and then knit something sensible!!