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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

FO: Ghia Sweater

Yesterday I spent the afternoon finishing up my Ghia sweater.  I got the whole thing sewn together, the neck and button bands knitted and the buttons attached, by which time I was too tired to give it a final steam block.  So I left that for this morning.

And wouldn't you know:  when I spread it out on my ironing board, I found an error I'd made in the lace on the first front I knit!  Pretty early on too.  Can you spot it?


I completely missed out two rows of the pattern - rows which close off the top of the smaller diamond.  I did notice when blocking the pieces that the second front was longer than the first one, but I attributed it to my tension loosening up, as it often does when I'm trying to hurry to finish up a piece.  I didn't think much of it, and just steamed the heck out of the smaller piece until it matched the other!


Now, this is one of those things that nobody will really notice - obviously, since it took me this long to figure it out!  So it only took me a millisecond to decide not to undo the whole thing, but rather to jerry-rig a solution.  Here's what I did:  with a new strand of yarn, I made a duplicate stitch right where there should have been a K3tog, going through the first and third stitches.  Pull tight and the stitches come together!

bring the needle through the left side of the first and third stitch

pull the yarn through and then go back into the spot the yarn came from at the beginning

the duplicate stitch is like so

pull it tight and the top is closed!

Here's a picture of the piece after I've closed the diamond on the left but not the one on the right:


As Hubby would say:  good enough for government work!  It does help that this part falls under my bust, where there is a scant amount of shadow.

Here's how the sweater looks front and back after my fix:



I'm really happy with the fit - the arms turned out just the way I wanted them to.  I'd hoped to put it on and take some pictures, but it's another dreary, rainy day here in Chicago, so these will have to suffice for now.

I wanted to use these cute little buttons I've had in my stash for years, so I went off-road with the buttonholes.  I lucked out and got great spacing on my ribbing, because I picked up two stitches for every three rows rather than going with the pattern's instructions.  This gave me 95 ribbing stitches instead of 120 - I had noticed that a lot of the FOs on Ravelry, and even the original example in the magazine, seemed to have button bands that flared out, signifying too many stitches.  Given that I'm a loose knitter to begin with, I knew I'd have to go my own way.  And because I did, I was able to make buttonholes every third knit ridge in my ribbing - my favorite way to figure out the spacing:  no math!


In the end, I only used 5 of the 6 balls of 4 Ply Cotton the pattern called for.  That shows you how much excess fabric I eliminated from those sleeves!

And now, I'm moving on to something Yellow.

31 comments:

  1. Hi, I wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for the Liebster award. If you would like to accept it, and there is no pressure to, please answer the questions on my blog: http://iwanttobeaturtle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/a-pleasant-surprise.html

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    1. Thank you so much, Claire! And congrats on your award!

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  2. beautiful sweater, gail! i am so jealous of your knitting projects, you're gonna have to come teach me someday! that is, when i'm not spending all my available cash on fabric...

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    1. Wouldn't that be fun?! How we do get to meet someday!

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  3. Gail, the sweater looks wonderful! It was very interesting to read about your error. I'm a very meticulous knitter and I know that a mistake like that would have bothered me too and made me make some corrections, probably the clever way you did. But looking from the outside - no one would really notice an error like that but the knitter herself. I tried to figure the error from the first picture and after a few minutes of looking at it still couldn't spot it :) And after you've fixed it it would take special devices to detect it :))) Good job!

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    1. Honestly, I only noticed it because many Ravelers had noted that there was an error in the right front chart. I compared the charts themselves and felt I could do it as written. But once I had the sweater put together, I decided to check the fabric to see if there was an error in the chart. And that's when I discovered MY error!

      I'm generally pretty meticulous too, and there are times when it does make sense to rip. But this was definitely NOT one of those times!

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  4. Your sweater is gorgeous! I tried -- hard -- to see the error in the first photo and couldn't figure it out. So glad you didn't rip that out... I woulda hadta come up to Chicago and commit you. ;-)

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  5. Wow it is truly beautiful. Congratulations on finishing it and it looking and fitting so great.

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  6. In a zillion years, I wouldn't have spotted the error but, I think I'm going to have to post on a knitting mistake I made that I just couldn't be bothered to fix. Let's say that you have done a much better job of correcting your error!

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    1. It's not that noticeable, but it would have bothered me knowing it was there. Also, I just wanted to put it out there that all is not lost if you discover an error after the fact - something can usually be done to fudge it!

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  7. The sweater is absolutely perfect and that one little misstep,easily fixed. Wear with lots of pride!

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  8. Gail, you are pure genius! It would never have occurred to me to fix the mistake that way, nor would I have ripped all that work - I would have just worn it proudly. Your Ghia looks lovely and the colour rocks.

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    1. Thank you! A lot of the pictures I took for earlier posts showed this red as being much more vibrant than it is. This set turned out to be more accurate - it's a lovely, faded out shade.

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  9. The buttons are like pearls! Terrific outcome and the duplicate st really fixes the oopsies.

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    1. Aren't they pretty? Years ago I bought a huge "scrap bag" of mixed buttons. I managed to pick 12 of these out of the mix and have been saving them for just the right thing. I like how they contrast with the red :-)

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  10. It looks gorgeous! I would never have noticed your little error if you hadn't pointed it out, and even knowing its there its hard to see!

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  11. Clever work - Isn't it amazing how long it takes to notice some things? I've not noticed some big boo boos right up until I take a photo ....

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    1. Hehehe - glad to know I'm not the only one!

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  12. Great fix! I have to admit I couldn't tell what the problem was or even really see the solution so you have nothing to worry about from us non-knitters! Great color too.

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    1. Thanks, Lisa! I figured non-knitters wouldn't be able to see it, so I'm glad to know I was right!

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  13. Fab sweater and smart fix!

    My mother often used the phrase "close enough for government work" (alternating it with "good enough for whom it's for"), so I had to laugh at your husband's comment. I so agree!
    -- stashdragon

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    1. Thanks! It cracks me up when he says it, because he doesn't work for the government!

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  14. Cute!! I love it! It's so adorable! I think that's a very clever fix-- way to remain calm and find an easy solution!

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    1. Thanks! You're funny! I can't think of the last time I had a tizzy over knitting!

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  15. Oh it's so pretty! And nice job on the nifty fix. Lol, I made a few mistakes on my current knit that I'm going to fix up at the end too. Whoopsies :)

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  16. Another beautiful piece. I love the color. It'll compliment you so well.

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