Vivian Sweater Progress

You may recall that when I went to WEBS I purchased enough Berkshire Bulky to knit Hannah a Vivian Sweater. She instructed me that she wanted a neutral color that would go with everything and, despite my protests, pretty much insisted on natural. Don’t get me wrong, I love an off-white sweater, especially one with a lot of cables. I’m just not sure my slob of a child will wear it more than once without permanently staining it. Did I ever tell you about how she would knock over her glass of milk at the dinner table every night? Truly. Every night. But I digress.

Despite my misgivings, I purchased the color she wanted and a couple of weeks ago I started knitting away. The sweater is knit in one piece from the bottom up so it starts with a lot of cast on stitches. That’s not a problem, I just use a stitch marker every 50 stitches or so to mark my numbers. The sweater has some lovely cabling. That’s not a problem either, as I overcame my fear of cables ages ago. The sweater also has a fair amount of seed stitch. That, apparently, is a problem.

I forgot to read my charts from right-to-left on the right side and from left-to-right on the wrong side so the large cable/seedstitch section on either side of the front of the sweater wound up being ribbing rather than seedstitch. You would think a knitter with as much experience as I have would notice this right away. Sadly, I had about 15 rows done before I saw my error. That’s 15 rows at 180 stiches per row.

Sigh.

Rip.

Restart.

I’m beyond where I was when I had to start over, which is always a good feeling. I’m using stitch markers to mark certain places in the pattern and I think I’m finally feeling comfortable with the pattern.

You know that means I’m about to screw up again, right?

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This Post Has 31 Comments

  1. Ouch!! It looks lovely but I can understand your fear of something
    that beautiful remaining beautiful with a certain child that has spilling
    accidents. I have a problem with wearing my white t-shirts – yes, coffee
    drips if I drink out of a cup with a lid! The sweater is going to be gorgeous!

  5. Although I don’t knock over beverage glasses, I’m famous for spilling food on myself. Luckily Naptha Soap gets out all stains, but I still change into old shirts for dinner when I’m home.

  6. Well at least you were only 15 rows in, but still that really bites and none the less painful. Looks beautiful! You’ll have to knit her a bib to wear with it. lol 🙂

  8. You are the embodiment of the process!! The sweater looks amazingly beautiful and will be a work of art. Love it, love the process and then let it go. If it survives, wonderful, if not, so be it. sadly

  9. What a great mom you are! That sweater is to die for – it might make me overcome my fear of sweaters with zippers. I love seed stitch, but I occasionally slip into inadvertent ribbing, too. So deceptively simple… 🙂

  10. It is gorgeous! We must have been on the rip wavelength, as I had to rip back my drops sweater because of a dropped stitch I couldn’t fix. Sigh. Sending ‘no stains/spills’ vibes to Hannah!

  11. Pretty! I agree with Hannah on the color. Did I ever tell you the story of when Tom and I were dating and he would spill his milk whenever he had dinner at my house? My mother was beginning to wonder about him…..

  12. I love hannahs choice of color! And just have to share that on my flight back to Logan this week I sat right behind Ysolda but was too damn shy to say hello. If anyone talks to her please say the whispering fool behind her is sooooo sorry!

  16. Oh, Yum. I love that pattern. Maybe you can Scotch Guard the sweater?? I have one of those slobby kids, too. I so relate.

  18. I just did that with Stonewall!! I thought the pattern was wrong and I mad “corrections”. Five REPEATS in I realized I was not reading the chart correctly, from left-to-right then right-to-left. *Sigh* Rip, rip rip.

  19. Oh, that is scrumptious….makes me want to pull out my Helsinki again and finally finish it off! I love ivory/white cables. You don’t suppose that klutsy is a trait Hannah will outgrow as she blossoms into adulthood, do you?
    So many do, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed, b/c that’s lovely!

  20. I am the same way – the minute I get comfortable with something new, I mess it up! I think it’s because my brain gets lazy and sets itself on ‘teenage’ mode… good thing I snap back into ‘grown up’ in time to find my mistakes before I finish… otherwise, I’d be in full blown toddler mode and have a melt down… lol.

    Your sweater is coming out lovely and let me say, as a former milk spiller, my mother had the same misgivings about making me an off-white cable sweater much like you are making now and I can proudly say that it is as clean as when she gave it to me – 7 years ago! We spillers can contain ourselves (and our beverages) if we concentrate hard enough. Can’t wait to see the finished object.

  21. Oh, that looks so soft and comfy – I just want to cuddle up with it.

    I thought I was bad about dropping food on myself, until I started doing my husband’s laundry. Lord almighty, that man is messy. Mustard is the worst – if he’s eating anything with mustard on it, it will end up on his shirt. And it’s funny, because in general he’s an incredibly fastidious man who hates to be dirty or messy, but his clothing seems to attract food.

  22. I know what you mean about fear of stains etc. I’d love to knit natural colored things but I think it’d kill me if it got ruined too fast. It looks gorgeous right now though.

  24. Beautiful!

    Just be grateful that Miss Hannah is a tiny thing and that you’re not knitting the XL size or it would have been a lot more stitches. ;^)

  25. Know what you mean about questioning who and what we should knit for, besides ourselves, but this will be an heirloom-quality sweater and I have a feeling she will recognize that and take good care. If not, you can dye it a dark color later! It is a fabulous project.

  26. Love the pattern (it’s on my list) and the color. If you’re lucky, the only thing she will spill on it will be milk which will blend right in!

  27. Very pretty! Glad you were only 15 rows into it being wrong. It’s strange how we can just keep going and not see, maybe we see it the way it should be and not the way it is.

  29. At our home, if there is a tomato product on the table – salsa, spaghetti, ketchup, soup – my husband finds the need to wear it. I will not be knitting him a sweater.

    Hannah’s sweater is going to be magnificent. I love the photos. It already looks snuggly. The perfect thing to cuddle up in and remember Mom when you are at college!

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