Time to Say Good-bye

Don't panic -- I'm not going anywhere. Instead, I'm joining in with Kat and friends to talk about knitting and reading today, and specifically I'm going to talk about unraveling.

If you've been knitting long enough, chances are you've looked back at some of the projects you've made and wondered about some of your questionable decisions. Maybe you used a highly variegated yarn with a busy stitch pattern. Perhaps you knit something that's entirely unflattering on you. Or maybe you were in total denial about your gauge until you finished and discovered your FO was laughably large or small. I had my share of those when I was a baby knitter, but in recent years I made a boo-boo that I should have been wise enough to avoid. It was this sweater:

This is the State Fair Cardigan, which I knit back in 2015. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the pattern, and in fact despite all that heavy cabling I managed to knit it in less than a month. It even fit me quite well. The problem, though, was the yarn. I made the big mistake of using yarn that I had (in this case, yarn I'd won in some sort of contest or giveaway from my now-former LYS) rather than yarn that was appropriate for the project. This yarn is lovely to work with and really soft, but it's a 50% wool/50% alpaca base. And while it made for a really cozy sweater, it has not held up well over time. I'm a little smaller now than I was when I made this, so it's already a little big on me, and it's also drooping quite a bit. The worst part is that the cabled ribbing at the bottom really flares out; I like the waist shaping, but I don't want or need width added to my hips. You can probably also see that the buttonholes are starting to gape a bit, and the fabric is getting fuzzy at the usual friction points as well as anywhere I've managed to brush up against something rough. So I've decided to pull this sweater apart and unravel it in order to reuse the yarn -- mainly because I've discovered that it felts beautifully and makes some really cozy mittens! I'd much rather use the yarn to keep some hands warm that have it be in a sweater that just sits in a drawer. Someday I hope to knit the pattern again, because I really love the sweater, but next time I'll be sure to use a bouncy 100% wool yarn!

Thankfully my current projects are all behaving themselves and no unraveling has been required. I will be starting on the ribbing on my sweater this evening, as it's seen a lot of action the past couple of evenings, and I'm getting close to the ribbing of my first Louisette sock:

I've been reading quite a lot, too, though I haven't quite managed the pace of January. Over the weekend, I started and finished White Nights, the second book in the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves, and quite enjoyed it. I was tempted to borrow book three from the library, as there's no wait on it right now, but my next hold should be coming up soon enough that I decided to wait for now. I've got about 50 pages left to read in Olive Kitteridge (my before-bed reading these days, so that'll probably take me the rest of the week), and yesterday I started reading An American Marriage through Hoopla. Hoopla can be nice when there's something that has a really long wait at the library, but I don't love the interface. Still, I'm enjoying the book so far.

How about you -- what are you knitting and reading this week?