check, check, is this thing on?
One would think by now that I could knit ribbing in my sleep.
THAT would be an almost true statement, but with this pulli, I was eyes wide open, but trying something new.
So it wasUP on the mannequin to see if it worked.
Because this sweater is knit in one piece from the bottom up, after you join the sleeves to the body, you have a ginourmous amount of stitches . I used two circular needles to tame this beast.
see post from Sept. 1 - knitting-in-the-round with 2 circs
This was the first time I tried this on a large ribbed section (previously worked on St st areas) and while I was knitting it, the join area at the edge of a rib column was looking rather raggedey, crooked and uneven. I was so blithely knitting along (don't ask how many times I ribbed into the plain knit sections then frogged) that I didn't even notice it until the cap area was about 3 inches long. FuPhooey.
And this is where the knowledge of all the knitters who've gone before saved me once again. Rachel wrote awhile back when I was stressing over nasty looking SSKs: "Maybe about 10 yrs ago I read a magazine article by a woman who was given access to some of the really old knitwear in museums, while she was researching and reconstructing patterns. Can't remember her name. Maybe Nancy Bush or Lizbeth Upitis.
What I do remember is that at first she marvelled at how perfect & smooth the old knitted pieces were, & wondered why modern knitters didn't have such skills. Then it dawned on her that the stitch tension had evened out with wear & time.
So I try to smooth out a wonky stitch by sending its excess yarn to its neighbors, then just leave it be, figuring magic will happen later."
So I just ignored it and finished the yoke and neck - all that's left is the whatever I decide to top it off with! And guess what? After all the attention traveled up and away from the troublesome points as I got closer to the end, the stitches seemed to do some kind of handshake deal with each other and agreed to even themselves out - kind of like when you go late to the movies and you have to take those seats in the middle of the row and you have to ask all the people to move it a little bit here and there and they see your supersize popcorn and drink and gladly step away...