Able to Undo

This weekend I have found myself obsessed with knitting. Sometimes I get like this. I just want to sit and knit stitch after stitch after repetitive stitch. I am beginning to realize that this mesmerizing phase seems to kick in when I have major sections of stockinette going so don’t have to look at charts or be concerned about pattern details. This is the really relaxed, meditative part of knitting that is inexplicably boring but not. In this kind of knitting my mind floats free and I often find myself daydreaming about what I will make next.

These ideas of what to make next can mean literally next–right after this project–or longer term next–after two or three other things I’ve already got yarn and/or patterns for.

I’ve been thinking lately of making another cardigan. I wear a cardigan most days and only two of them are ones I knitted myself. The last cardigan I made I do not wear, unfortunately. I had great aspirations for it–the yarn reminded me of a cardigan I once bought from The Gap which I wore so much it got holes in the elbows.

It is the Waves of Change Jacket by Denise Bayron. Sadly, it is too cropped for my liking, and the sleeves are too tight. I feel like the whole thing is just too small. I thought of giving it away, but I really like the yarn and the pattern. So, I began to think about making a new one.

And here is where I got obsessed. I thought and thought about how I might “fix” this sweater I’ve already made. To lengthen a cardigan is no small thing. You have to take off the button bands as well as the end ribbing. And I want to re-do the sleeves as well.

So, in the middle of my stockinette stupor, I pulled out my Waves of Change jacket/cardigan and my ball winder and I unraveled the sleeves.

I removed both sleeves up to the join, where I put the live stitches on hold with waste yarn. I took off the end ribbing and both sides of the button band. I salvaged all the yarn I could, winding it carefully. I will next turn it into hanks using my swift, wash it, and hang it, to get out the kinks. I have about a half cake of unused yarn from the original project and I ordered one more fresh hank. I’ll use the new yarn first and use the salvaged yarn for the ribbing and button bands. I hope it works!

Ha! But this project will be still be a little back in the queue (I think). I am really a one project at a time knitter. I find however, that I am now able to relax about this ill-fitting cardigan because I’ve come to a decision about how to fix it.

Once again this has got me thinking about how knitting is NOT like life where you don’t get a chance to re-do. In life, you just have to blunder ahead and live with your mistakes and hopefully come to terms with whatever happened and LEARN something. Sometimes I ask myself if there are things in my life that if I could go back and re-do, I would. I am not sure. I think we make (most of the time) the best choice we can with the knowledge we have at the time. And if you could go back and smooth something out in the past, whatever came next might not be necessarily better.

It’s like Kate Atkin’s book “Life After Life” where each chapter presents a varied picture of a woman’s life as she re-lives it time after time, making little adjustments in choices here and there. It is interesting to think about re-doing things to change the future, but that future wouldn’t be the same as now. If that makes sense. ?

Anyway. Here’s on to next week and probably less knitting as work will be pretty relentless I’m guessing. However, it is getting cold so I can wear the beret I made last year with some leftover yarn. It is the Brynja beret by Helene Magnusson made in Icelandic Lettlopi. Looks a little Christmas-y doesn’t it? I’ll have to remember that.