This is my first knitting project that is not from ‘We are knitters’ or ‘Wool and the gang’. But I am overly confident and this project is beyond my ability. I started knitting about 2 years ago, and this is Julie Hoover’s sweater club fall of 2018. I had about a year’s of knitting experience at the time. The pattern is rated a skill level 3 out of 5. But it looks simple enough since most of it is stockinette stitch. The requirement for the sweater club is you have to buy the yarn for at least 1 of the 2 patterns. The 2 patterns cost $30, and they will not be released for public sale for one year. The other pattern offered looked more complicated and the yarn cost almost $200. The yarn for this cost $80. So I took the plunge.
This arrived in a beautiful box with Julie Hoover’s name in the inside of the box. This is a very sturdy box, I was impressed. I was excited. I looked at the pattern and ordered the needles required. But my first obstacle is just right around the corner. I can still think back years from now and laugh, but I did not know. I did not know how to unravel the skeins. I bought a winder, but I did not know I need an umbrella either, so I wasted 3 skeins of wool trying to unravel. The not so bad news is this is Purl Soho’s Good wool at $9.80 a skein.
So at this point, I ordered an umbrella to hold the skeins during winding and looked at the pattern again. I need to make this cardigan 4 inches shorter in order for it to be above my knee. I am 5 feet 3. So I decided that I am only short 2 skeins despite my mishap. Oh well a $20 mistake. So I ordered 2 more skeins from Purl Soho and I have a total of 7.
Ok, so this was about November of last year, and I started picturing myself swinging in this cardigan,. Well I dreamed too soon. This was just the beginning of my night mare project.
I started by knitting a gauge, and I looked up videos on how to knit the fisherman’s stitch. There is more than 1 fisherman’s stitch. So I googled on how to knit under. So I cast on 21 stitches (this is the number of stitches listed in the pattern for the gauge) and tried to knit a gauge on fisherman’s stitch, this took forever, I could not figure out why mine does not look like a rib. I spent multiple nights sitting on the bathroom floor frustrated while my 3 German Shepherds snore away in my bedroom. I was more than frustrated, I was desperate. Now I am beginning to wonder if there is an error in the pattern.
So now, don’t laugh. I went on Julie Hoover’s website and attempt to use her ‘contact us’ page. Well that did not work. So I went on Facebook and found Ms Hoover’s page, and wrote her a question via messenger. I did apologize that I had to use that route because her webpage did not work. To my amazement Ms Hoover responded in a few minutes, and of course, there is no error on her pattern. But she is glad to look at what I had so far.
So at this point, it was December of last year, our short autumn in Texas is almost over. I was embarrassed and I did not want to show her what I had. So more googling and I decided to skip the stupid gauge and just cast on for my size. So if you want to laugh again, please laugh along with me. The pattern starts off with the number of stitches to cast on with needle C then refer back to the first page on the fisherman’s stitch. It then had listed in bold that the fisherman’s stitch is even number of stitches. Ok, really? I cast on 21 stitches for my gauge. No wonder. Really? That cost me hours of frustration. Maybe a note in the gauge will alert beginners like me, maybe not. Lesson learned: read everything first.
I managed to knit the 5 rows of fisherman’s stitch for the back piece and finished it in about 10 days. I did not know why a 1 stitch selvedge is needed since it would be seamed, and I think I forgot it many times, but ok, I am not going back and unravel. The 2 front pieces were pretty uneventful. So now I thought, or so I thought, I was half way through, this was already January of this year and my hopes of wearing it before the short Texas winter is over is dwindling.
Now come the sleeves. The problem is The fisherman’s stitch on the cuff takes a lot more rows than 5. Also at this point, I figured out that I cannot fix a drop stitch. So it took multiple attempts to get past the fisherman’s stitch. I would have a drop stitch and I would unravel to start over. So now this was February and winter was almost over.
I took a vacation to Paris with my husband and I started another project in WAK cotton so I don’t have to bring this in my little carry on suitcase. We do not check luggage. So shortly after we came back, I had an eye infection, and I could not wear my bifocal contacts. I had to wear glasses for 2 weeks, so this project was put aside. Then I started back up and I ONLY had the 2 collars left, at 41 inches long a piece.
Since I do not know how to fix a drop stitch, I had to start over every time and unravel everything. By the time I got to 8 inches, I came to reality that there is no way that I would make it to 41 inches twice with no drop stitch. So I sewed all the pieces together and hopefully by wearing part of it I could get some motivation.
I decided that I would knit the collar in 2x2 rib and finish the project. I used 5 mm needles and knitted a gauge to get the number of stitches for the width of the piece that I needed to knit. This still took forever, and it was April already. But anyhow, I finished it before the summer. And if you want to laugh some more, I have yarn in winter grass to knit another one. This color is Hickory nut which was on the model. So here we are, me modeling my night mare and relief. My overall review and comment, if you do not know how to fix a drop stitch in fisherman’s stitch, think again before knitting this project.
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| Reduced the length to be above knee for me |
Update: 10/24/19
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| Parker cardigan in Winter grass |
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