An Epic Journey

I read once that socks are the short stories of the knitting world.  If I were to name a literary metaphor for this sweater I would pick an epic poem.  Specifically the Odyssey because I felt like I might never finish.

Initially I thought I wouldn't have enough yarn for this sweater at all.  But I found an extra skein and breathed a sigh of relief.  Until I got near the end.  I ran out of yarn halfway through the button band.  But I wasn't going to be defeated, oh no.  I would finish this baby.  Here were the options:

A) Probably the easiest:  Find yarn in my stash of the same weight as the yarn I used for the rest of the sweater and knit a new button band from it.  It wouldn't be gray like the rest of the sweater but it would be a finished sweater.  Except, I didn't want a gray sweater with a different color button band, I just wanted a gray sweater.

B) Possibly easy: Track down another skein of the yarn.  It wouldn't even need to be the same dye lot - I could just reknit the button band from the new skein and if the dye lot was noticeably different I could live with it.  Except even if they still make that color it will involve buying yarn and you know you can't just buy one skein.  Well I can't. I'm trying to use up my stash, not make it bigger.

C) The hardest: Rip out and re knit sections of the sweater shorter to reclaim enough yarn to finish the button band and for the making up.  Of course, this is what I chose to do.  I ended up re-knitting both sleeves (just the arms, not the cuffs) and having to claim a little yarn from the body as well.  It worked out, the sleeves probably would have been too long as they were and I discovered I bound off wrong on the fronts.  Sometimes doing things the hard way does pay dividends.

While the actual knitting turned out to be a longer journey than expected, the buttons were a miracle.  I've no idea if I picked them up with the intention of using them with this yarn but I found buttons of the perfect size and color in the button box and I had enough of them.  And we know that never happens.  I'm always one short or they are the wrong size or color.

 So was it worth it?  Yes! I love this sweater and wear it almost daily.  I'd much rather go the extra mile and rip and reknit to get something I want, love, and wear all the time.  Sure, completing a project is good, but a finished object that gets used and loved is so much better.  This is why I also rip out or give away sweaters when I no longer use them.  I don't like the idea of something that took hours of my life hiding in a drawer or trunk when it can be out in the world being useful.  Even if it takes me more hours to make it that way or someone else is wearing it now.

The pattern is the "Trimmed with Roses" cardigan from A Stitch in Time Volume 2.  I skipped the color work be cause I wanted something plain. The yarn is Dale Garn Baby Ull.  I would recommend both the pattern and the yarn.  Ravelry link.