It must have been before last Christmas when I first decided to knit this, because one of the suggestions I gave my Mum for gifts was the yarn. She got me something else, but later in the year Zhivago went on sale and I bought the yarn myself.
I hadn’t knit a lace garment before, apart from socks, so this was a challenge I deliberately set for myself. Though I’m a bit of a yarn snob, preferring natural fibres, wool makes me itch so the only way I could ever wear something like this was to knit it out of cotton or acrylic. I figured I may as well use the Zhivago specified by the pattern. Even though the pattern was in Crapacious Knitting magazine, it was supplied by Patons, using a Patons yarn, so if I followed all the directions exactly what could go wrong?
I was amazed to find I got gauge straight up (I’m usually knit a little loose). It took a few repeats to get the hang of lace knitting, and aside from a few mistakes fixed by ripping, all went well. I felt the pattern was a bit lacking in detail, but realised it only seemed so because I wasn’t an experienced lace knitter.
I started it in early August. More than a month later the front and back were done. Then the sleeves in October, which I lengthened. I got stuck in the knitting black hole while on the collar, but eventually it was done. Then, because I didn’t have the courage to convert a lace garment to one knit in the round, I had all those seams to sew up.
Last night I finally finished the sewing. It was done.
I went into the bathroom, whipped off my top and put on my sexy new lace jumper.
It’s huge.
Okay, it’s not HUGE, but it’s clearly about two or three sizes larger than the size I knit on the pattern. It’s at least a 14. I’m a 10. I swim in it. It looks patently ridiculous (boom boom).
Crap.
CRAP.
Would it cheer you up to tell you that your belated birthday present has finally arrived and that you’ll get it tonight at Crafties?
sympathy *hugs*
Damn you, Patons!
You know, of course, that this is the Knitting Gods getting revenge on you for knitting with acrylic. They’re real fiber snobs, those Knitting Gods.
And hey, if all else fails, I’ll buy the sweater from you. I’m at least a 14, too.
oh how disappointing for you! I hope that it shrinks in the wash or something so it will fit you….it looks lovely
Doh! Didn’t make crafites.
Zhivago is half tencel, which I think is a plant fibre, so it’s not *all* acrylic : )
Actually, I reckon the top would look fabulous on you, Michelle.
I did wonder if I could shrink it, Sara, but even if tencel did shrink, the acrylic content would probably combat it.
I also considered my old art teacher’s approach: if it doesn’t fit, get out the sewing machine. But it looks so lovely and I’d hate to get it wrong and mess up all that lace.