The Life of the Photography Sweater

Well, the plan was to be at knitting in Concord today, but know how it is, Man plans, the Gods laugh.  So, apparently, does my little sister.  I should have been an only child.

Anyway.  I could post plenty of things, believe you me.  This summer, when knitting content is bland and boring I'll be all "And here's what I was saving from January!" and you'll be all like "Thank you goodness you didn't tell us in January, Ericka, we would have been all, like, whoa, with our sensory overload!"

Yes.

Today I will blog about the Photography Sweater.  I will tell the whole torrid tale, and amuse myself as I'm doing it.

Projects are started different ways.  Sometimes it's when you find the yarn that must be something.  You may not know what, but you know it must be something and it must be yours.  Sometimes you find the pattern and you know, it will one day be warming your needles and bringing a smile to your heart.  Sometimes it starts life at the moment that you realize it's need.  That last one is what we're dealing with here.

One day, in (let me check the archives) late September, my cube mate asked me if I ever knit commission pieces.  (Yes, I know you could go back and read all of this, but maybe you don't want to, and anyway, I want this here, for posterity, in my blog.  I digress)  I don't knit for money, I told him, but I would barter, I like a good trade, but it wasn't happening before Christmas.  No problem, he said, just let him know, he'd buy the yarn, and think of what would be considered a good trade.

A few hours later it struck me.  I was worrying over my wedding, and Dave was a photographer.  Elvis, as a little apprentice angel up in heaven, must be trying to earn his wings.  "Hey, photograph my wedding!  I'll have the sweater done for Christmas, and I'll buy the yarn!".  He said he'd think about it.  Really, that's what he said!  Don't get mad at Dave, it was a commitment to a date over a year away.  Let me know if you want his home phone number, you know, if you feel really strongly about this ;)

The next day I started lugging in patterns.  I started with the Interweave.  I went through all of them and put stickies on ones I figured he'd like.  This was several pounds of Interweave.  And one Simply Knitting.  I have no idea how that magazine got in with the rest, I should have watched out of it better, because on the cover of that issue was a belted cardigan with no less that 64 countinuous cables.  Silken Sands.  Every issue of Interweave Knits for the past 3 years, and that cardigan.  Guess which one he liked.  Yeah.  How the hell did that get in the pile?

Ok, I said, I can do that.  The pattern called for cotton, so we nixed that.  I explained fiber memory and he agreed.  We wanted something alpaca/silk/tencel/wonderful.  I found Taj Mahal, an alpaca silk blend, which seemed perfect.  I needed 18 skeins, and Webs had 17, but they had it on order, no real idea of when it would come in, but I should call back in 2 weeks, ok?  Ok.  I called back, and a woman, who was not the customer service equivalent of the first lovely woman I had talked to, told me that it was on back order, they had no idea when it was coming, and (this was in her attitude, not her words) she didn't really care.

I got online to see who else carried the yarn.  No one.  Do you know why?  Because it was discontinued!  That's right!  They wanted me to wait an indeterminate amount of time for a discontinued yarn!  And what could I do about it?  Nothing.  They were yarn.com.  I really like Webs to shop at, but I've decided their web site (and the service that goes behind it) is shite.

Well, it was time to search for a substitute, and I turned to elann.com.  Quechua, from the Peruvian Collection had the gauge, color, and fiber content (65% alpaca, 35% tencel) that I was looking for.  You can beat Elann's prices either.  After 3 weeks of battling, I had my yarn.

I started by knitting at home, so I could get used to the pattern.  I did some frogging (this is not the worlds most straightforward pattern, and you don't see too many people on the livejournal knitting group going "Oh, I just finished Silken Sands!" so I had no one to compare it to.) When I was comfortable with the pattern I started taking it into work.  Really, it wasn't going to get done any other way.  Between phonecalls during the holiday lull is where this baby did most of its growing.

There was heart ache.  I finished the two front pieces, dragged myself through the huge back.  I longed for the quick sleeves, which laughed at me one I started them.  "Quick!" They said, "Easy!  We'll show you who's easy!".  The collar/lapel pieces were garter stitch, and Chris did one after he finished the belt.

The sweater and I had a pretty good relationship up until this point.  It's like a family member who just needs and takes, but you love them still, regardless.  The pattern, with its 24 row cable lace repeat, had become a soft mantra.  And now it was done.  I looked upon it's pieces with maternal care.  I pieced first one front panel, then the other, to the back.  I had a vest.  I seamed up a sleeve, and then fixed it to the armhole of the vest.  Then the other.  Stitch by stitch, I was preforming magic.  Pieces of sweater mean nothing to most of the world's population.  I was taking all of the last months' work and translating it into something that they could understand.  Now it was time to sew the collar on.

The collar, in some flight of fancy, was to be knit up in two pieces, each starting at the bottom and ending at the neck, to be seamed together in the back.  Uh huh.  If I were to do this sweater again (which I probably will do, because of all the finished pieces I have, Satan will probably choose this one to have me do over and over again) I would do the collar and lapel in one, long piece.  I had my part, and I started dutifully seaming it up.  I got from the bottom of the cardigan, all the way up to the shoulder until I realized that I was sewing it on backwards.  I undid it, I sewed up until I realized that I needed to leave a spot open to sew in the belts.  I ripped.  I sewed, left the open bit, got to the middle of the neck... and still had collar.  So I kept sewing.  Chris had done the other part.  I get a little twitch when I think about this part. 

Chris has a very large gauge compared to mine.  There is nothing wrong with this, all good knitters can allow for something like this in their own knitting, but they should knit with other knitters when gauge counts.  I pulled back a few inches and knit it back up, so it would match the other end of the sweater.

I blacked out about here.

There was a bit about me flipping the collar the wrong way and having to undo it, but in some fit of wisdom I had already woven in the ends of the yarn.  It was 5:30 am.  I went to bed.  I finished it upon waking the next day.  Yes, my pride was great.  Here it is.

Jaye (the recipient, whom I thank the Gods, wears a small) loved it.  It really does suit her, and like so many other projects, the mishaps during production have been erased.  I am so proud to see it finished, so glad to see it done.

She mentioned that her cat loved the sweater, she couldn't keep him away from it.

I can't imagine why.

No, I know why.  Moose helped,  and then he oversaw packing

and then he edited this post.  Anything wrong is his fault.  

I swear.

Comments

[Gigi]

And so a new sweater of hand made goodness is born! I've said it before and I'll say it again. That sweater is WONDERFUL and Jaye's sweety is a lucky girl.

[Yarnophiliac]

Great story -- I swear, this is my favorite sweater story ever. You have to send it to Brenda. And Moose? Love him!

[Marion]

Beautiful sweater and a great story on perseverence. O.K. I'll restart the lace sock I just frogged.

[Lora]

What a wonderful story!! And I can say "I was there when she ripped THAT part" or when she "frogged this part at Grandview!!" Great job Ericka (and Chris)!! Beautiful, simply beautiful. It will be funny to see you knitting something else... Almost from the time I moved here, this sweater has been your knitting life to me :)

[Jackie]

The sweater is so lovely. The story makes it more so. And Moose? Squish his little face.

[Macoco]

What a sweet story - and the sweater is beautiful.

[Nichole]

Great story!!! :) Love the finished product too!

[Arleta]

Glad it's all done, and looking so beautiful! I loved your story, too!