It had too many things wrong with it to continue. The main thing was that the armholes were too tight. Second, was that despite blocking it to measurements, there was no way that you could add 3" of overlapping ribbing down each front and get the 40" measurement described in the sizing. I am nowhere near 40" in the chest, and I would have been popping the buttons off trying to close it. Combine that with uncomfortable armholes, and it was a show-stopper.
Now, normally, I would forge ahead, finish the sweater, then promptly stick it in the back of my closet to await the next donation call from a local charity (somewhere there's a charity worker thinking, "Man, I wish that chick would quit sending us these ugly sweaters"). But I have reached a turning point in knitting. It's no longer about quantity, it's about quality. I frogged half a mitten the other day because I didn't like how the cast on looked. Today, I'm frogging an entire sweater. Soon, I may work up the nerve to frog a sweater I finished last year that I hate wearing because the shawl collar is too heavy and pulls the sweater down (I didn't give that one to charity, that was EXPENSIVE yarn!).
Also, I bought a new book, Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard (author of the blog Knit and Tonic), and she is basically saying the same thing, stop making sweaters that don't fit, knit from the top down. However, I may be too much of a follower to do that, I get inspired by other's designs, converting them to top down might kill the joy. Although, wasting 3 weeks of your life on a sweater that doesn't deliver is a real bummer, too.
I think it's time to regroup. Instead of spinning my wheels churning out sweaters, it's time to do some stash reduction and knit some things for charity. I have a lot of odd balls of leftover yarn and I'm running out of space. Hopefully the next post will show items that are for someone else. And that I actually like!
PS- I survived frogging the sweater, although I confess to self-medicating with a cookie afterward.
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