Knit and Learn.

I began making Kate Davies o w l s jumper for my step-daughter this last week. I think I'm currently sitting at seven projects on the go at once (there's a whole post in that sentence alone!).

I had been sitting on some cream 12ply for some time. Last year as I was sorting out the yarn stash, most of which is between ten to twenty years old, I came across a jumper I'd obviously been making at some stage and given up on, right near the end. I unravelled it in to hand rolled balls and put it in the cupboard to await it's fate.

When I came across the 'o w l s' jumper I knew it would have to be made at some point. In June last year I met Stella at Handmade when we did a spinning class together. She was wearing a cardigan version of the jumper and has an awesomely interesting blog I frequent every week. More inspiration.

About a week ago I showed my step-daughter the pattern and I do believe she squealed (she's 14 - squealing is compulsory), so I cast on as I was looking for an easy, quick project. Last night I finished the body up to the sleeves and cast on for them. Thinking I could be a wee bit clever after having tried two socks at a time successfully, I figured I could do the same with the sleeves.

Up until this point I had been using a handwound ball for the body. I decided to use my yarnwinder and make two cakes for the sleeves. Easy. I got a few rows of ribbing done on both sleeves before bed. This morning I realised knitting two sleeves with a few stitches is more time consuming than socks with all the stitches they require - changing yarn every thirty-odd stitches takes up more time than knitting those stitches almost. I removed one sleeve and focused on the remaining sleeve. It was knitting up so much better than the body of the jumper! As I look at the two side by side on the arm of my chair, both the sleeve and the body look pretty rough, but the body is far worse. I took a bunch of photos to prove my point but they don't show the difference so clearly. That won't stop me from putting up a few of them.

There's no doubt about what I have to do next: rip the body back, rewind in to a couple of cakes and begin again. I had thought initially a good soaking and blocking might get rid of most of the lumpiness but I'm thinking now this may not be good enough. Once upon a time I would have been happy enough just to have a finished project but after having spent way too much time viewing other finished projects all over Ravelry, I am no longer satisfied with this.

I may, or may not, post an update here as I reknit the body, but I shall definitely post photos on my project page over on Rav. I'm excited to hope that the results shall improve dramatically.

Now, I'm heading off to finish this sleeve, undo the body and contemplate a series of posts about all the projects I currently have on my needles...