Last week I felt a little bored with my knitting project so I went in search of something knitting related to do that wasn't knitting. There is a stack of sweaters sitting in my room that have problems. Rather, I have problems with my knitting execution in choosing either size or length or yarn or what have you. Not being in the mood to unpick stitches and reknit sections of sleeves or button bands I pulled a sweater out of the stack and got to frogging. This yummy yarn came from the Hollyhock sweater that I knit at the beginning of last year. All of the issues that I had with this particular sweater came from my own modifications. The yarn, Columbia by Imperial Stock Ranch, is a lovely lovely thing to work with and blooms amazingly when washed and unfortunately it was just a plain old bad choice for this sweater. This yarn definitely tends toward the heavier side of worsted, if not Aran, and when knit up at the close-to-correct gauge for Hollyhock it became armor-like. Due to my choice of yarn I had to modify the stitch count and yoke depth and neither worked out quite right. I prefer a fitted yoke and sleeve with little to no extra fabric at the underarm and this sweater just, well, it was not flattering. I think I wore it once or twice and then shoved it toward the back of my closet as the wearability issues forced me to acknowledge my knitting fail. I'm excited to knit it again in something that works with the yarn rather than against it.
