Resurrecting a Sweater

Creativity is a high-falutin' word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

-Ray Kroc

This is a most unexpected entry for me in the Time Machine Tuesday category. What? You forget what Time Machine Tuesday is? It's a chance to look back at mine, your, our handknits of ages past and see what's come of them. Resounding successes? Complete failures? Hardy yarn or pilling like crazy? How is it wearing (or not wearing)? What would you have done differently? And what are the great knitting acheivements you accomplished pre-blog? Show them off.

Today's entry hardly qualifies as a great knitting acheivement, but it was pre-blog. In fact, until a couple of months ago, this sweater fell into the complete failure category. I never ever wore it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.


Comfy Gray Sweater, circa 2001-02

Pattern: Gatsby, from an old IK
Yarn: Tahki Dakota
Needles: US 9, maybe?
Notes: too many - see below
Best Thing About This Project: Its resurrection.

What are those too many notes, you ask? This sweater, from a knitting perspective, is still a pretty dismal failure. And it's actually the third sweater I knit out of this yarn over several months. So let's talk about a horrible combination of yarn and pattern, shall we? It's a nice fluffy yarn, and the varigations are much more subtle in person than in that flash photo. It's soft, although there's a halo that can be a little itchy. But it's just not a great yarn for this pattern, or any of the other patterns I tried. It's lofty and light, the exact opposite of the heavy, drapey Gatsby called for, and the sweater has a tendency to pull up and out. The pattern calls for waist shaping near the midline, and it looks ridiculous in this yarn. And while the colors don't flash quite as much in real life, there is some unattractive pooling around the waist. Overall, just something I don't really want to wear in public. So I didn't. And I still don't.

The saving grace of this sweater came some time in November when it turned chilly (hey - it gets into the 40s and sometimes even 30s at night!). I was at home, in my pajamas, and all my hooded sweatshirts seemed too bulky. So I reached into my chest of sweaters and pulled out this one. And it is the absolute perfect Gray Comfy Sweater. I now wear it almost daily over my pajamas (see how good it looks with pajamas?), which makes it the single item of knitwear I wear the most. Ironic, isn't it?