Olympic Update - Day 6 - In the Groove....mostly.

Day 6 of the Knitting Olympics drew to a close with knitting progressing more or less right on track. As you can see, I've managed to complete the top of the sweater...and I've even transferred it to another needle so I could cast on for the bottom.

I am now facing a difficult decision of to frog or not to frog. It's truly a conundrum. If you recall, the sweater is being knit not out of bulky yarn, but of dk weight yarn. This resulted in lots and lots of math. Well, not too much, but enough to make me scribble notes on various sticky notes to append the pattern.

Anyhow, while it looks like the gauge and everything was right on, and I did pick the right size to knit, I am wondering if a straight translation was not so smart. Why not, you ask?

I present to you the following:
Exhibit A: Note where the shoulder ends on the knitted top. Note where my actual shoulder ends physically. Does this seem odd to you? With the exception of Raglan Sleeves, I do not think garments are not supposed to be shaped this way. Especially garments with set in sleeves. I could be wrong, after all, this is only my 3rd sweater...and I'm not so good with sewing. It could very well be that everything settles into place with the finished weight of the garment.

Exhibit B: Thickish, wideish, tallish, frumpy looking collar. It certainly doesn't look that wonky on the other sweaters I've seen - Part of the problem is the collar is not yet secured with a button. The other part, is I'm also fairly certain that if the sleeves pull the shoulders into place, it will also flatten that collar out - not to mention the additional weight that will be on the bottom of the sweater when it's not crop top length.

And finally Exhibit C: The placement of the leaves is um...a result of my straight mathematical conversion of the pattern with lack of thought to placement of design elements (also probably why I was having issues on Day 3 or whatever day it was I was working on that part). Here is a closeup (of both Exhibits B and C). The little leaves are supposed to be jauntily off to the side of the neckline, but if we observe these photos, we will note that the leaves are parked more or less right below my chin. Not too dreadful, and I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the placement. I've caught the mistake now and have adjusted placement of the leaves on the hem of the sweater.

Plan of Attack: Well, a wise woman (who also happens to have a son with a fine taste in hats) suggested I do the sleeve seaming tonight instead of knitting blindly onward on the bottom of the sweater...this way, I can see if things fall into place, as it were, once the sleeves are attached. If not, there will be much chocolate, and perhaps some other things, while I pick out my seaming and kitchnering of the sleeves and rip back the entire top and go back to the drawing board to make design adjustments to the pattern.

This is what I get for substituting yarn I guess ;)