Which-Crafts?

So I have finally done it. I have committed to knitting an object that must fit my body and won’t be hidden inside my shoes or under my pants leg.

Sleeves intimidate me, so I am going to knit a tank top. Plus its summer, who needs sleeves anyway!

And it is certainly challenging my resolve. I’ve already had to cast on 3 times. And now about 20 rows in, I have decided to rip it back to the edging and start again. This wouldn’t be quite so stressful if the yarn was a bit better. I am doing it with Valley yarns Longmeadow in a nice bright pink color. But the yarn tends to unravel a little, especially when I work with it a lot (like casting on 3 times).

I was looking at it last night and my short rows are unacceptably ugly and then I noticed a few other errors, the combo just drove me nuts! I have decided to rip back to the garter stitch edging and then try the short rows again using Nona’s Japanese Short Row technique.

I am finally going to be able to start spinning the fiber for my sweater this weekend, and I am SO SO SO excited. As a reward the universe found me my sweater pattern! I am sure that I’ll have to do some adjusting to match my yarn, my sleeve plan and size (it is aaaaalmost big enough in the largest size of the pattern.)

On the page it is so very close to what I want to knit, it even has cables just the way I wanted them! All I have to do is figure out a graceful way of removing the sleeves and still having a nice shoulder. I also found a KAL where I hope I can get some help.

This is giving me extra UMPH to get going on all that spinning that needs to be done first. OTOH doing the numbers, I might not have enough fiber, I have 2 lbs. The generic listed yarn requirements for sweaters knit in worsted weight is about 2000 yds for a 52″ bust, and about 1050 for vests. Looking at the pattern materials and averaging for sizing up I would be guessing around 3.75lb (2562 yds) of yarn. YIKES!