Swimmin' With The Frogs

Well, the Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend Cardie is done. Finished. History. Kaput.


Yup, completely frogged out of existence. (Note the glass of shiraz in the photo. Mmmm-hmmm, it was that kind of night.)

So, you ask, what finally happened to push me over the edge?

Well, I'll tell you. With great confidence, I sat down to sew up the shoulder seams so that I could pick up the sleeve stitches and knit in front of the TV last night. I got the one seam finished and slipped the sweater on to make sure there was enough ease in the armhole. There was, but somehow, something felt off. I laid the thing flat to investigate and found that the front panel overlapped the back by about 2/3 instead of roughly 1/2. How odd.

So I folded over both front panels...

This is not good. Most of the time, when I make a cardigan, the two front panels do not overlap each other more than an inch or so at the button band. Hmmm...let's check our measurements.
WHAT????

Each of the front panels are 11 1/2 inches, and the back is 14 inches? That should read 23 inches! Now how in the hell did I knit an entire sweater body and not notice this? And how did I knit it, frog it, and knit it again, and NOT NOTICE THIS??

Too much stress? Too much shiraz? Not enough shiraz?

I reviewed my notes and found that the mistake was made before I even started. Swatches and calculations were all neat and tidy--23 inches at 8 st/inch is about 184 stitches, 11.5 inches at that gauge is 92 stitches. Mmm-hmm. So why did I write down PU and K 128 st across the back? That's 56 stitches off--or about 7 inches, which, after factoring in the draw-in for the lace pattern and the stitches consumed by the lace pattern that created a mock side seam, would account for the missing 9 inches. Bloody hell!

I poured that glass of shiraz, and pondered my options. Cut the sucker and insert a side panel? Frog out the front panels and make a smaller sweater for someone else? Ah, f**k it. Rip, rip, rip. It was strangely satisfying, so I suspect that I had had quite enough of this project or was never truly committed to it in the first place. Scratch that puppy off the UFO list!

So today is a bright new sunny day, and I have about 1200 yards of handspun fingering weight 3-ply woollen silk and merino to play with. Out of the frog pond and back to the drawing board!