Scarpetta: One Step Forward...

Last time I wrote about it, I had basically put the Scarpetta to the side because I wasn't emotionally ready to finish it. Since then I have realized that it is only two weeks until the fair and it's the only chance I have at an entry in the pullover category. (I did also do the snowflake sweater this year, but I don't own that one anymore...)

And I was starting to miss it.

So I knit through the shoulder part, and then put the sleeve and back stitches to the side while I knit the part of the front that goes under the arm. When you reach the side "seam," you're supposed to cut the yarn and then knit the equivalent part on the back. But I thought, why have more ends to sew in? So I continued from the side seam to where I had stopped working on the back (reversing the shaping along the way).

Apparently I was having too much fun because before I knew it, I had gone six rows too far! I tinked those rows back, counted my stitches to make sure it was good and then set about Kitchenering 136 stitches together.

You can see I was doing a great job! After a nice blocking you wouldn't be able to tell where the "seam" was at all. Only problem was when I got a little further along, I noticed that I had a lot more stitches on one needle than the other--the count wasn't going to work out even. A more comprehensive analysis showed me that I had been Kitchenering the front to the sleeve stitches instead of the back stitches! GAH!

I took out all that Kitchenering and in the process had the yarn break. It's just a single ply so it really isn't tough enough to take all that wear from sewing the two sides together (and then undoing it). The whole point of re-engineering the side portion was to avoid working in ends, so I split wet spliced the yarn and carefully Kitchenered the correct stitches again.

When I got close to the end of the seam I noticed that my stitch count was two off. (One side had two more stitches than the other.) One stitch off is normal depending on where you are in the process, but two is not good. I took a closer look at my seam and realized I had messed up a good 30 or so stitches back. I carefully took out the seam to that point--no yarn breakage this time--fixed it up and carried on. This time I got it done and it looks great.

Since then I have been going like a steam train on the sleeve. I'd say I'm about half way and that makes me hopeful that it make it to this year's fair yet. Then I remember I have to knit the collar... The thing working in my favour, though, is that there's not going to be any seaming to do when the knitting's done. (You can see I'm on an emotional roller coaster/seesaw on this one!)

The best thing to do would be to knit, so I'm going to go do just that.

clickety-clack!