Now It's the Sweater...

Remember a while back when my mittens were killing me? Well, I got those all straightened out, and was feeling pretty proud of myself, so I decided to embark upon a sweater-knitting adventure.

I've had a few false sweater starts over the years. I got halfway through one tedious design before I realized the yarn wouldn't wear well, the fit was totally unflattering, and I didn't particularly like the color. I got all the way through another, only to realize it was way too big and my modifications were totally unflattering. But that was all a long time ago.

This time, I decided to knit Ivy. I'm a total sucker for a ballerina wrap sweater, although I don't think I ever had one during all my years of dance. So I figured it was time for a grown-up version. All in all, the pattern wasn't too difficult to follow, and was actually quite enjoyable.

Until it was time to sew it up. Somehow I got a front twisted, so after I seamed the shoulder and side seam, it looked like something M.C. Escher might have dreamed up. That wasn't such a big deal - I just ripped out the shoulder seam and set it right, which wasn't so bad since there were only about 20 stitches at the shoulders.

The real issue was the size of the sleeves. I should have paid more attention over on Ravelry, where nearly everyone who made the sleeves complained about how big they were. I made my length modifications, and wrapped it around my arm as I was knitting it to check the size, and everything seemed ok. Until I seamed it up. The sleeves were so baggy, I don't know how to describe it. Knitters usually worry about things being too small, but the real problem is when things are too big.

See those rough pink lines of stitching on the sleeve? That's where the edges should be - I've got as much as 3 inches of extra ease in some places!

No amount of seaming can fix that unless I'm willing to   do some machine stitching and cutting (which I'm not), so there's only one thing left to do....