Working to a deadline

Things I do not like.... Deadlines. I returned from my holiday a week ago, it was a 'stay-cation' visiting my parents who live in Berkshire (with a stop off in Dublin where my brother lives). I decided a couple of months ago that I'd like to take clothes which were mostly me made, as a kind of me made holiday. I planned the things I was going to make over the summer, some of which I've already blogged about. Among these items were two knits, one of them was the shrug (which didn't actually make it on holiday as it suddenly became rather warm), the other was a deep red cardigan which was to match a dress which you haven't seen yet.

The Belmont cardigan by Gudrun Johnson (photo taken from pattern)

I began this like all good knitters do, I made a swatch to check gauge and to practice that eye catching pretty lace on the front

I know what you're thinking... That's not red! Well I used the same kind of yarn as I did for my Victory jumper, but I swatched in the cream colour keeping the wine colour for the real thing. And yes I know this means the gauge might have been out, but I figured blocking would fix that...

And so I began (people who follow my Instagram wil recognise these photos, I poached them from there for the blog). Thing is once I finished the ribbing and had a few rows under my belt I wasn't happy with the looseness of the fabric. So I ripped back and began with 3mm needles rather than the required 3.5mm. I understood this would mean it would be smaller so I adjusted to make the next size up.

This is where that pesky deadline started to niggle at me. I had 6 weeks to go at this point. I figured with some committed knitting time I could still do it. 

I knitted everywhere, in the car (as above - with quite curly needles until my 3mm needle tips arrived in the post), in the library between jobs, at home watching the TV. The pattern is great I must point out, it's easy to follow and to remember, the lace was coming on a treat

However...

After it got to this point...

.. I know, nearly there! It became very apparent the back over the shoulders would be far too tight. I was running out of time at this stage. So rather than rip the whole shebang back (all that lacework!) I took the back down to the sleeve divide and put increases in until the shoulders were wide enough. I know, it was a patch when it should have been properly mended. But at this point the deadline had taken over! I just ploughed on ahead (hangs head in shame).

I even made sleeves...

They were tricky, I've never made them before by picking up around the armhole and working downwards. Sadly I have also never mastered the magic loop so this was done on DPNs, meaning I couldn't try on as I went... Result... Sleeve one was much too tight! (Goes to sit in a corner to rock gently). So I thought (deadline looming), I can go ahead with sleeve two, get the size right, and then re-do sleeve one, I've still got time. So a much larger sleeve two went ahead. Once I had finished this... In the car on the way to Berkshire... I tried on the finished cardigan... Sleeve two fitted, yay! But the rest of it was tiny!! (Sobs)

So I have learned several lessons here

1. A swatch only helps if you continue to use the same size needles for the actual item

2. When things start to go wrong, don't just continue and hope for the best 

3. Deadlines are evil!!

So for the time being Belmont has been returned to the balls of wool from whence it came. I will try it again, I really like the pattern and I really want my red cardigan. But for now, I'm going to try something new, and I'll do it very carefully... With no deadlines.