My give up

... for now anyway.

I am being punished for some previous crime against knitting, I just know it.

After going on and on and on about how much I wanted a dark red heavy cabled sweater I gave in and bought a bunch of Berrocco Inca Gold in Vino on sale and the Vivian pattern.

This yarn is lush. I love it. It makes lovely popping cables and its soft but firm at the same time - Also favorite shade of red ever.

This pattern is gorgeous and flattering and intricate and interesting.

This sweater when its done will be the hotness.

Now, I was doubly good about this. I swatched the yarn before I invested in the sweater's worth and by swatch I mean I knit half a freaking sleeve.

Seriously.

My swatch is over a foot long. I used half a ball of yarn to do it. I used two needles sizes because one looked pretty close but I went down anyway in case it blocked out some (it did).

I washed it.

I blocked it.

I carried it around in my knitting bag for a week and took it out to pet it and reconfirm that yes, the gauge is workable and yes the cables look good, and yes the seed stitch is lovely.

Now - Technically the pattern calls for aran/bulky yarn and Inca Gold is definitely a worsted weight. But this is fine. Other people have successfully made this pattern in worsted yarns and I went through and read all their notes.

I want this to fit with zero ease, but I want that to be zero ease over something more than a cami. So I measure myself with a dress shirt on and then with a light v-neck sweater and a t-shirt and figure that to accommodate the slightly finer yarn and half stitch off of gauge I have that I should go up one size from my bust. Especially since my last sweater was massively too small.

All this sounds reasonable, yes?

One reason I was really feeling this pattern is that its knit in one piece from the bottom up so I can try it on as I go and adjust as necessary. I'm pretty sure while I'm casting on that this is going to work out extra well because *if* for some reason the size I've chosen looks like its going to be a little loose come the end of the shaping I can do some extra decreases in the waist and slim it down a size at the bust line. I am a little on the hippy side anyway so this works perfectly in my head.

I have knit the first 25 rows or so this week which gives me about 5 inches of fabric and I decide that this is a good point to try it on.

I don't really need to tell you how that went do I? (Just for the record this time it was too big. By something like 4 inches - and i tried it on over jeans and with a sweater on)

Thankfully I was only 1 ball in and so I quite un-neurotically (aside from the brief stomping fit and banging of my head against the wall and cussing) pulled it all out and set it aside.

I will try this again in January.

Maybe 2010 will be my sweater year because clearly 2009 is not.

(Thankfully Inca gold frogs well.)