Zimmermania

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Diaster strikes...I need help


Ok. I finally wove my Bog together, well the first side. And I almost started to cry. It is huge...I think it could fit Andre the Giant. It hits me between my knee and ankle....and the sleeve opening is wide enough to fit my hit through and then some. Also the sleeve besides being huge is also too long.

I did a swatch and the math mutliple times. I am large person... roughly 54' inches around. But my weight isnt one area it is all over. There were many times that I almost stopped knitting this but I have a bad habit of not following directions...and I figured that somehow it would work out.

I dont know what to do. I am just sad...I have working on this for so long and I just am sad. I dont even think I can fix this. I dont know.

I will post a picture tonight when hubby gets home.

Casey


ps here is my picture. I only could take one as the battery died. Excuse my pjs as it is snowing here in Mn. It is knit out of wool. My key number was 260, this was based on the measurements of my favorite sweater (an Ez Raglan I made) and my gauge. The shoulder shaping falls in the right place. I think the problem lies in that I need it to be 260 wide but that makes my final of rows is 520 which is alot. I dont know. I think it is going to become a blanket.
The best part is that I stink at weaving but this weave looks beautiful.
I did miss type last night... I did 520 Rows not Ridges. I Still dont know what to do. I think I am ripping it out.
Arg.

posted by Minnesota Mazzio's at 11:24 AM

25 Comments:

  • I am soooooo sorry!

    Could you figure out where you wanted it to fall, snip a stitch there and pick out the row (seperating a strip off the bottom) then knit an Icord bottom on the active stitches?

    Good luck!

    Kivy

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:05 PM  

  • Okay - here I am thinking some more...

    Do this, but put a thread (scrap yarn) through the loops instead of a needle. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/FEATwin03TT.html
    you're going to put a thread through one whole row, skip a single row (not a purl and knit row, just a purl or a knit row) and put another thread through the next line. Snip the un-threaded row between and pick it out... you are seperating a long chunk off of the bottom of the jacket. Now you have the jacket with a live edge held by thread, and the beginning of a whole new jacket ready to be knit on with the live edge held by threads.

    Hope this helps!!!!

    Kivy

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:17 PM  

  • I'm so sorry! How horrible! I think Kivy has a great idea, if the rest of it fits, just figure out where you want it to fall, put a life line in, snip one row past that, pick the stitches up and bind them off.

    I hope you can fix it!!

    By Blogger Rachael, at 12:29 PM  

  • Kivy does have a good idea. We've all been there at one point or another. If you go to my blog you'll see where I used a life line when I had to redo part of my hybrid sweater http://knightlyknitter.blogspot.com/2007/02/using-life-line.html give it a shot!

    By Blogger Nonna Rose, at 1:35 PM  

  • Did you knit with wool, dear Casey?
    Can you shrink the whole thing in the dryer?... checking it every 4 minutes...?
    Meg

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:42 PM  

  • I deliberately felted a fair isle cardigan that came out un-freaking-believably big and was very happy with the resulting jacket. I will warn you, however, that it is really heavy and really hot. Like wear-it-in-a-snowstorm hot. Kivy's suggestion will be a lot more work, but in the end you'll get the Bog Jacket you wanted in the first place.

    By Blogger becky c., at 4:49 PM  

  • Felting is not a bad idea, esp since you live in MN and can get some wear out of something like that. I also like the snip-stitch idea for shortening the length. I am so sorry. How frustrating to put so much work and effort into it and be disappointed! This also makes me even more nervous to knit this jacket for myself :( Let us know what you decide to do, and good luck!

    By Blogger karenthecomputerwife, at 6:12 PM  

  • Is it called "steeking?" I don't know. I'm just a novice, but I read brooklyntweed.blogspot.com and if he can do that to his cardigan, then this is fixable, me thinks.

    Back to lurkdom. Good luck!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:33 PM  

  • Knit a belt or attatch toggles and call it a bathrobe. Nobody has to know that it isn't what you intended. :D

    By Blogger RodgerPM, at 7:17 PM  

  • oh dear how sad that is. talking from my own experience. knit a new one or do as meg says but i suppose it will make the whole thing a little on the stiff side. every one makes disasters and learn from them. and then it is good it is knitting that is a disaster and not life itself. i feel for you though. don't get me wrong.

    By Blogger knititch, at 6:13 AM  

  • oh dear how sad that is. talking from my own experience. knit a new one or do as meg says but i suppose it will make the whole thing a little on the stiff side. every one makes disasters and learn from them. and then it is good it is knitting that is a disaster and not life itself. i feel for you though. don't get me wrong.

    By Blogger knititch, at 6:14 AM  

  • I'm soooo sorry. How frustrating. (I can relate to the "I have trouble following directions" comment. I'm not sure if I get into more trouble for following directions or for deviating.)

    O.K I just sewed up my (child sized) bog so I'm feeling "expert" enough (with one on my lap to consider) to ask a few questions:

    Are you happy with the finished width (as much as you can tell with one side woven)? If yes, then adding lifelines and making it shorter is certainly an option but then you're left with too wide and too long sleeves.

    I haven't a clue what to do with too long sleeves other than create a cuff (OR Cut off the excess and create a hemmed sleeve. Me and a sewing machine? Uh, no. You're on your own for that part.)

    But if you're making the entire thing "shorter" you could "easily" make the sleeves less wide. Think about this:

    If you undid the sleeve weaving, can you add a lifeline (below the original "thumb trick" that would make the body the proper length? That will become your new "thumb trick" line.

    Now - from that point up - you need to figure out the depth of the arm holes/width of the sleeve. (Did you do any special shaping that negates everything I just contemplated?)

    From the "new thumb trick" measure up the distance of a desired arm hole. This is also the width of your sleeve. Since this may over-take the original thumb trick line, you'll need to weave that back together. (If you did yours right (as opposed to mine) this will be easy and invisible.)

    Short version: I'm thinking that you unweave all the sewing. Make/weave it back into a square. Remeasure, use some life-lines, scissors, and unpicking to reformat where the seams go. This leaves you with sleeves that are too long and in need of a friend with a sewing machine.

    OR you could just weave it back into a square and call it an afgan.

    Or you could felt it.

    (Feel free to email and I'll see if I can't figure out some sketches - as if my bad drawing would make it clearer.)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:38 AM  

  • oooher....good luck with whatever you do, and keep us posted!

    By Blogger picperfic, at 8:46 AM  

  • I'm sorry, too. We definitely learn from mistakes, don't we? I suggest you figure out which measurements you like, make a note of it, and then rip it out and redo it. Some of the previous suggestions are a lot faster, but you may never like the finished result. Good luck whatever you decide.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:55 AM  

  • I could be wrong, but I think the total number of rows to be worked is two times the K number, for a total of twice the rows as sts cast on. (In your case, 520 rows, not 520 ridges) I'm thinking you might have worked 4 times as many, or two times K for the number of RIDGES instead of rows. But, as I said, I could be wrong. I hate to suggest this, but if it were me, I'd frog it back to where I was happy with it and go from there. So sorry! It does look great, though a bit large. :-)

    By Blogger knitting elephant, at 10:07 AM  

  • I have to tell you that before I read the contents of your post? I saw the pic, and said to myself: DANG I WANT TO KNIT THAT!!! I just assumed you'd done an oversized bog on purpose, and intended to do some smashing deep cuffs on the arms. Is it really too big, or just not what you intended? Because I want one.

    By Blogger knittingjuju, at 11:00 AM  

  • I just typed wrong I meant 520 rows not ridges. Thanks though. I still dont know what I am doing....

    Casey

    By Blogger Minnesota Mazzio's, at 12:34 PM  

  • I say roll the cuffs up, add some big buttons and make it a jacket. If it's way too big around for that, then you could also steek some of the back together. I think it looks like it could be a nifty looking jacket.. well, coat. But that's just me.

    By Blogger Cornellian, at 1:24 PM  

  • Wow, that is a lot of knitting. Personally, I would hate to rip out so much work, so I'd be more inclined to rework it into something else. I'm thinking a bathrobe. You'd still need to shorten the sleeves, but otherwise you'd be basically finished. Then try again for the sweater with new yarn.

    By Blogger Phoebe, at 1:49 PM  

  • Here's what I'd do. Shorten the sleeves. Buy a fabulous ethnic fabric woven belt that has complementary colours to the new coat. Throw on some kick ass jeans, great boots, wrap your new coat around yourself, tie that belt and get out there and enjoy it!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:43 PM  

  • I feel for you, as I myself am knitting on a bog right now - its a long, garter-y process, and not one that you want to over do if you can help it!

    If it makes you feel any better at all, your post has helped me to take more careful notice of how my bog is fitting and I have revised my proportions a bit.

    But I agree with the posters who suggested wearing it as a long jacket - I think the length screams "cowgirl duster!" and if you fix the sleeve length, you've got a new coat full of attitude.

    So, rip back and then, as EZ herself would say -
    KNIT ON!

    By Blogger Stacey, at 7:04 AM  

  • What if you felted it lightly as a lot of people suggested? Then if it's still too long, cut off the extra length from the bottom and sleeves. Then embellish the edges with whipstitch in a contrast color. You'd have a super duster/coat. I would totally wear it!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:26 AM  

  • you'd also want to take some of the length of the arms, becuase I suspect that they'd be too long despite the shortening of the lenght, and knitted fabric generally doesn't full in that dirrection, much.

    treat it like a steek and then pick up stitches and knit some sort of cufff and you'll be fine. Particularly if you felt first and cut later, you wouldn't need to do much reinforcement.

    By Blogger tycho, at 8:19 PM  

  • Shortening it and felting it some will give you a fabulous winter coat. I think it will be great!

    By Blogger Jen, at 8:42 AM  

  • Thanks for posting the picture Casey! The sweater is indeed hilarious! Definitely made me smile!

    irene

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:23 PM  

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