Friday, June 30, 2017

Grape Chevron Sweater

This is a slightly older project, still pending. It was supposed to be a project for Winter 2016 term (so started Jan 2016). Planning started before my now-husband had proposed. I even got him to pose for a silly photo for my proposal to 'use up my stash before it swallows him whole' photo.



And the specific stash in question is my favorite acrylic - Red Heart ... yes, they do make nasty yarn, but they also have a nicer yarn that they make... Red Heart With Love. Which is a nice, bouncy, acrylic. My biggest complaints is the small list of colors they do, however, they have recently added self-striping to their options... so it will get better (I hope).


As you can see, it's a grape-y purple (my favorite color).

The pattern is the Chevron Chic pattern which I have in a 2009 Verena Knitting magazine. So, pattern bought almost 8 years ago in the magazine, yarn bought at least back 2 to 3 years ago... and project began in 2016. Yeah... I'm quick like that, lol.



In all fairness... Jan 2016 was the month when wedding prep planning struck me pretty hard. There was a lot I wanted to do to prepare for the wedding (which wasn't until October 2016), but I also knew with my health that I could have a relapse at any time and if I wanted to do a lot of DIY for the decor, and the ceremony, and the snacks, etc... well, then I had to start early so that I would be ready. 

I managed to get the back finished before I ran completely out of steam (my camera seems to like to turn purple into blue):


And then I picked it up again in December of 2016 (break month) starting the front; only I hadn't done a good enough job of noting where I was in the pattern and what size I was making (woops). I got to the chevron bit of it before I realized my counts for the pattern were off (mistake 1) and when I compared it to the back I realized I was off by more than the counts, I was a good 3-4" wider than the back because I had cast on for the completely wrong size (mistake 2). I had to frog the whole thing and then I put it in time out (where all the naughty projects go).

Then this last April (another break month), I picked it back up again and got the right number of stitches cast on... and I managed to get a couple of repeats of the chevron before it was time to start the new term. I had hoped to get through the chevron by picking it up here and there during term, but working on 'bigger' WIPs during term always seems to be such a waste of crafting time.

I found it sitting in my project bag, mid-row even:


I figure I probably easily have another 20 hours of knitting to finish the front of this sweater and another 40 hours or so of knitting for the sleeves. Then easily 3-4 hours of seaming up and weaving in ends.

It should be a warm and cozy sweater when finished and something I could easily wear into the office or when visiting family and friends. Assuming I can find time and health remission to work on it.

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