Please ignore the ugly beach towel and the 'bike shop' behind the futon. Here we have the back of the sweater and one sleeve, with all the other pieces on the left of the photo. This blocking process has been my first painful lesson in "row gauge." Observe how long the sleeve is, especially compared to the back. From the pattern I think the sleeve is actually supposed to be shorter than the back, and you might recall me having been concerned about how long the sleeves were looking, and actually cutting out 12 rows near the top after the last increase. Apparently that was too little too late, from looking at these babies. Hence the row gauge theory. The sweater back was knit until it was however many inches, and then the increases/decreases started, whereas the sleeves didn't have a stretch of straight knitting, just increasing every so many rows until there were the right number of stitches. From looking at the back and the sleeves, I conclude that my row gauge was way off, and that this was corrected for on the back because I just knit less straight, but not fixed on the sleeves, hence they're long enough for a gorilla. But, I will roll the sleeves and carry on. Maybe I'll be more careful next time...
So you see the sweater, laying there on the futon, drying nicely in the breeze? Peacefully basking in its almost sweaterness? Hehe. Those photos were taken Wednesday night before I took Dave to the airport. Thursday when I got home from the lab it was late, and I was tired, and although the sweater was dry, I figured no harm could come from leaving it pinned out another night. Enter Felis bastardus. I awoke Friday morning and proceeded to the bathroom, where I immediately stepped on something cold on the rug. Looking down, I was both shocked and awed to see a blocking pin there under my foot. I ran walked to the den and discovered, well, a mess. Felis bastardus had apparently been bored in the night, having taken some time off from his usual nighttime activity of sleeping on my head and chewing my hair. Now I really do wish I had some photos of this to document the occasion, but what I discovered was a pile of green towel and sweater pieces on the futon, with pins sticking out everywhere. Thankfully, the beast had not damaged the knitting (I have to admit this was the first thing I thought of, before wondering about his well-being) nor has he appeared to have ingested any of the pins (this is a cat who has been to the vet for yarn removal from unmentionable regions, so I wouldn't have put it past him). I counted the pins I could find, and found 31, which seems to me an odd number. I've only used them once before and I know I haven't lost any, so they either were meant to come in 30 packs and I got lucky, or there are several laying in wait around my apartment. I've been wearing shoes. I have to admit that I haven't gotten around to reblocking these pieces, but I will soon...Here is the perpetrator as a kitten, showing early signs of destructive tendencies:
I've been doing a fair bit of other knitting, but I'll wait until Dave comes back with the camera to talk about it, so I can show it off properly!
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