Not Stopping. Never Going to.

It is a good thing to take a look, a serious look at everything you are knitting and take an assessment of it.  Wip piles ought to be checked over.  Will you still wear it?  Why aren't you knitting it?  Was it a flash in the pan?  Is it good?  The questions can have all sorts of answers and if you go through all your Wips every so often, the job doesn't overwhelm you.  I is very freeing to unload things that you know you have fallen out of love with.

At the same time, there are the things you still love, and love deeply but aren't knitting for other reasons Like the very pretty River blue version of the Elton cardigan. Mohair takes effort and for a long time I did not have the right needles.  I got the right ones just before it sort of got pushed to the side when winter arrived.  Like I said, all kinds of reasons for it to still be sitting there.

I looked at my 4 Jahreszeiten Herbst (Four Seasons Shawl Autumn) and knew that I really didn't want it to be a shawl for occasional wear.  I wanted a sweater for regular wear with those marvelous colours and that simple little design playing too.  It was easy to frog and it is just waiting for me to cast on again.

Which brings me to round yoke sweaters. I was tired of round yokes last fall and had decided that I was going to avoid them, and then I ended up with the Agate Cove sweater, the Sun Dogs sweater, and the Breezeway Tee .  These are all great patterns with very similar modified round yokes.  Seriously.  I love how they look but in all three I have had trouble finding a size where it works for me.  

Don't get me wrong, I love the Agate Cove.  But the size isn't quite right.  I should have gone with a much smaller size for the colourwork part and done more of my usual shaping on the bottom.  I did that more or less but the top is a little big.  

The top of the Sun Dogs sweater is a little big.  I have a photo of that from the last try on, 

And you see how loose it is over the upper back?  It is the same on the front and of all the many versions of this top that have been made, I really do not like it when it doesn't fit smoothly over the body of the wearer.  So, once again, I picked the wrong size.  This one is a real shame because I really really want this sweater.  I love the details of it.  That simple bit of garter stitch just blows me away.  

The Breezeway T is exactly the same.  It is too wide on the top.  On each of these we have taken into account that the yoke does create the top of the sleeves thanks to a handy helper, but a too wide yoke is just too wide.  

So, one of my tasks today is to take apart both of these pretty sweaters, the Breezeway and the Sun Dogs, that is.  Agate Cove is complete and though it kind of bugs me, it is nice and long and has the feel and look of a tunic plus it is warm and a pretty colour to boot.  But the others will be re knit.  The wonderful Pesto yarn from Midknit Cravings is going to be knit into a variation of Sun Dogs, I think, with a more average raglan yoke.  And the pretty mash up of colours of the Fleece Artist Sock yarns will still be a top but I don't have a pattern in mind.

It feels sort of nice not to have to carry the less than successful knits.  Please know this isn't the fault of the designers.  It is just that my shoulders belong in another country's size from the rest of my body, mostly my hips.  There is no way to get past that, and sometimes, needing to follow the pattern defeats me.  Accepting that is okay?  It feels like a win.  I can go forward now and get what I want from both of these really nice yarns.  It didn't work out.  Not stopping though.  Never going to.