Off to a Flying Start - In a Way

 

I have several plans for my crafting this year, Note how carefully I do not say goals, as nothing sets you up to fail more than setting goals and then feeling hampered and restricted by them, and so left open to the allure of Other Things. And I'm not even  going to list my plans here, although  I do have them written down somewhere else, and  will post the ones that come to fruition and identify them as such. . As far as knitting goes the plans do include jumpers, but that's as far as I'm going. 

So I knitted the sweater shown above in 2020. I loved the pattern, it was in aran wool so it grew really quickly, and as soon as I had cast it off I excitedly tried it on and -  it was an utter disaster. It was meant to have a very wide and low neck but not so wide that it qualified almost as off the shoulder and not so low that, had I worn it without anything underneath, it showed cleavage. 

I was devastated ( in a knitting related way. Nobody died) And because it was only the second thing I had knitted top down, I had absolutely no idea how to go about correcting it and it has lived in a bag in  my study ever since. However, helped by a friend with much more knitting know-how than I have, who took one look and said , well you need to lose about a third of the stitches around the neck, and the class I took with Carole Feller last autumn which gave me an idea about what to do, I picked it up  two nights ago to try and make it  wearable. 

I measured, I counted,  got out my calculator and told myself that if it didn't work first time at least it would give me some idea about how to try again and it was all a good learning experience. And guess what? It worked first time. Who would have thunk? I was really pleased with myself. 

I was not so pleased with the jumper, which is shorter than I would have liked,and rather too form fitting for my comfort. Also the mos stitch border at the bottom flares (this is not me, I noted that others who have made this pattern had the same problem. If I could face it I would undo the border and redo it in rib, but I cant. The jumper is wearable as it is, and I will wear it. I'm even going to try another top down jumper pattern, because it is part of the plan, and I'm told it is a very well written pattern (which this one was not), has thoughtful  upsizing (which this one didn't)  and with some shaping (which this one also didn't have). So that may be a happier experience and with a better outcome. 

That said one new year  plan, fulfilled by 3rd January, is not bad going.