Meet Crop Circles, a double-knit coat by
M'Lou Baber. I had been corresponding on Ravelry with another member who was knitting this coat who had run into some problems with the sleeves, but had solved the problem and shared her solution with me. My sleeve problem was very different, however, and unfortunately will result in my having to remove the sleeve and rip back 2/3 of the coat. Is this the fault of the pattern or the designer? No. The fault is all mine.
This is a coat, not a cardigan, and I was afraid after seeing other pictures that I'd look like a big fat penguin in it. So, I added waist shaping. However, having never done double knitting before much less decreasing in double knit, I did not understand that the thickness of the fabric would cause it to bubble if the decreases were not spaced very far apart. Mine were not. Thus, the camel hump right at the waist. So, I'm either going to have to rip back to where the decreases started, or rip back to the beginning and decrease very slowly.
The second problem caused by my waist shaping, was that it removed stitches from the chest and shoulder area, which changed the drop shoulder to a fitted shoulder, making the sleeves too short. (They were going to be too short anyway, I have freakishly long arms.) I will have to add several inches to the sleeves, which means redoing the sleeve decreases as well. I also noticed after examining the book's photos more closely, that there were originally TWO DIFFERENT sleeve patterns, but only one was included with the pattern. Will have to think about that later.
So, now, I am faced with ripping out 50+ hours of work which will probably take several hours due to the twisting of the two yarns, and recharting the sleeves. Or, I could just throw it back in the closet and pretend it doesn't exist for awhile or forever. Is it Happy Hour anywhere?
