This past week I have had time to knit again and it has been both glorious and frustrating. I decided that first on my list was to finish the piping hot sweater, a design by Lily Kate. I had finished everything but the sleeves in December, and since then it has sat, rather forlornly, next to the couch. From there, it would occasionally send out guilt vibes, tempting me with its wild shades and trying to make me give up the book-writing.

I managed to put in one of the sleeve caps, and the piping treatment down the shoulders looks great:

However, I was having doubts about a number of things. The stitches for the sleeve cap are picked up and then the cap is shaped with short rows. The pattern calls to pick up a stitch in every other row along the arm scythe. Normally, I would aim to pick up 2 stitches for every three rows. I was fretting about this, thinking that the sleeve cap would be drawn in and bunched if the pick up rate was too low, but I decided to trust the pattern (especially since I was knitting with the specified yarn). As it turned out, I think the edge of the sleeve cap looked okay:

But (you knew there was a but coming, hmm?), there was some bunching along the body adjacent to the sleeve, which is apparent in the photos here. See the wrinkle in the above photo? I was quite unconvinced that this was going to work, but I also didn’t want to rip it out and pick up more stitches because I think that the sleeves were already a good width and the sleeve depth was also good. In addition, it was really hard to judge the fit of the shoulders and sleeve caps with only one side worked. So, I knit the other sleeve cap.

These photos look weird because the sweater is so bright that it is hard to capture the contrast between the red and the pink, so we pushed the exposure. It means that all of the wrinkles in the sweater are prominent and the shading is off (which also makes my face look green). I think, however, it demonstrates the general problem. The fit across the shoulders is good, and the width of the sleeves is good. The decrease rate on the sleeve is working. (Note that I’ve changed the decrease rate from the specified once every 4 rows, to once every five rows.) However, while there is no bunching on the sleeve itself, the sweater is bunching on the bodice along the edges of the sleeve seams. I told Doug that I could probably fix this with plastic surgery to enhance my bust, but he claims it would be easier (and cheaper) to rip and re-knit. You can see the bunching on the back, as well, just where the stitch marker is:

After looking at these photos, I sighed. I may have sighed repeatedly and rather dramatically. I contemplated ripping out both sleeves and using a different pickup rate. This thought was very disappointing. In the first place, I wasn’t convinced this would actually solve the problem. In the second place, I was also certain that the sweater was too short, and I had already resigned myself to ripping out all of the ribbing at the waist, and adding an inch or two in length.

After engaging in this sighing behaviour, and drinking coffee, and watching a Lovejoy repeat, during which self-pitying may have occurred, I was struck with an epiphany: When in doubt, block!

My lovely ‘piping hot’ is now stretched out and pinned, having had a bath and a beauty treatment. Time will tell if this works. I will have to wait for it to dry. If it works, it will be all speed ahead. If not, I will swear a bit, and rip out both sleeves, and the waist ribbing. It might take tequila.

Now that I have finished writing the book, I also find myself with time to have fun. Our friends, Philip and June, have been in the UK for a month and we were able to spend their last day with them in London. (June writes a great blog.) We had a wonderful day. We spent part of it at the V&A, where we saw the Fragile Beauty exhibition of photos from the collection of Elton John and David Furnish. The exhibit hadn’t opened yet, but they were having a preview day for members, so we got to see it before the crowds descended. It is a remarkable and eclectic collection. I like this photo June took in the stairways of the V&A:

We had a great meal and then caught the early show upstairs at Ronnie Scotts.

London was bopping for a Thursday evening and we had fun walking around and people watching. Here’s another photo by June:

I have the rest of the weekend ahead of me, and I have managed to stymie my knitting plans by doing a pre-block of the piping hot sweater. Oh no! What will I knit?