This weekend I was finally able to pick up my BT Shelter yarn for the gorgeous Fuse cardigan even though they didn’t have my color in stock. Fortunately Ty and Ashley were able to talk me into the nice forest green color instead (don’t you worry, I’m already dreaming up other ideas for my Faded Quilt color).
As soon as I got home I wound up half the yarn and cast on for a swatch with the recommended needle size in the chart pattern. Now, I love this chart pattern, it’s really pretty and super simple, just one issue – it’s completely impossible to measure gauge in it. Seriously, I did I nice sized swatch, tried my best to measure it and after about 5 attempts I just assumed that I hit gauge before I decided to throw my newly acquired yarn out the window. So I cast on for the sleeve and thank goodness they give you a measurement for how long the cuff is supposed to be, because I was off by half an inch. So I switched to a size smaller and cast on for the sleeve again, this time actually hitting the 2.5 inches they mention. At this point I do a little dance and make a new swatch just to give me some good karma points.
I now have both sleeves nearly finished, although I am worried that the pattern sleeve length is a bit short for how I like my sleeves, so we’ll see. And thanks to humongous delays on the red line this morning I did about 4 more inches on the second sleeve than how it is in the picture.
I realized at some point yesterday another reason I’m loving this sweater, and it all has to do with blame. If it doesn’t fit exactly right, or if it’s not quite what I expected, I can simple blame the designer. And because I’m usually the designer of my sweaters, it will be a nice change to not have the self-loathing that normally starts up when I finish a sweater. I can just blindly follow the pattern and try my best not to over-think anything. I’ve even managed to quiet my inner perfectionist, I’m pretty sure my sleeves don’t match perfectly and I’m ok with that. I definitely think this is another step towards becoming a better designer.
Happy Knitting!
