Sunday, January 12, 2014

The jumper I wish I'd never knitted

Sure, it looks good in the photo, maybe something to do with the beautiful model, but knitting this jumper in real life has taken me, I believe, seven years.
Today I decided to sew in all the loose ends, and insert the V in the neckline. I thought I might even get as far as sewing it together and be able to consign it to the 'finished' pile. But when I came to sew in the loose ends, of which there were a few (explanation later) I found A HOLE!. Just near the top left hand shoulder front. Both the purple wool and the green wool had broken at exactly the same point.
To mend it I pulled, distorting the gauge because there was no give, and tied the ends as best I could and then I put clear nail varnish over the knots, because at this stage there was nothing else I could think to do.

I carried on, only to find ANOTHER hole in the ribbing on the back, so I darned that as best I could, not even bothering about the aesthetic of how it would look. I'm now on the final sleeve, sewing in the loose ends and I've found yet another hole. This time the green wool has snapped.

This jumper has been plagued with problems. The moral of the story is not to buy wool so far in advance of knitting the garment that the wool is discontinued and so there is no hope of returning it to the shop for a refund or another ball. The final ball of purple wool I used had so many frays in it I had to continually break it and re-introduce it into the sleeve (so, lots of ends - another annoyance). Then I ran out of green wool at the top of the last sleeve and had to use different wool/different colour to finish it off. 

I'll finish patching it together as best I can and then use it as a run around jumper. Maybe it'll be good for when I'm cleaning out the chickens. And if I get any more holes I'll put a whopping great patch on it.

Grrrrr.

3 comments:

Sue said...

Oh, that is so frustrating! Do you think that the holes are moth damage? That happened to me once.

Last week I came across Jane Richmond's magic knot video, a method for joining yarn that eliminates weaving in loose ends. The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nq_7EXTWHE

I have chickens, too. : )

Paula said...

I think the holes may have been due to dodgy wool. It was 4 ply soft. Maybe why it was discontinued. I'll have a look at the magic knot video - thanks for the tip!

Paula said...
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