bog jacket

Last night, after hours of work, I came to the difficult conclusion that the grey bog jacket in its current incarnation does not work. The yarn is very nice and warm, perfect for my intent as a thick warm sweater. But it isn't the right yarn to work in garter stitch. There's a light halo to it and this is a fabric that will quickly show its wear.

This is a sweater where I've reworked nearly every part twice. My maths at the start were for a sweater 2x the body width. My sleeve math was weird. I redid the garter stitch grafting twice.

I struggle with garter stitch. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because early in my knitting I twisted the stitches and even now, many years on, the fabric I create now with not-twisted stitches looks strange to my eyes.
Someday, I will rip. For now the project is in time out, sitting in one of my WIP bins.

I have a second sweater that's on its third attempt that I will likely rip too. I don't love the pattern. I was knitting it because everyone else was and I was curious about the allure. I may finish it. It's a lighter weight sweater so it will likely live in time out until next spring.

I want a new sweater. Tonight I'm going to go through my stash and think through what yarns I have enough of that I can work into a sweater. I'm thinking a nice semi-fitted pullover. Maybe marled stockinette with my many sock yarns held doubled in a fade from one skein to another. Maybe a plainer dk weight superwash in a solid, I might have enough grey. Or maybe something completely different.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

I finally pulled my bog jacket out from my languishing WIP bin. I decided I was at the sleeves and so I cast on. I then misread (twice) the instructions for tapered sleeves ... twice. This photo, in the first set of short row for the taper, is where I'm at after days of knitting.

I'm debating the shoulder shaping. My gauge is making it so I need to have a think about the maths. I've been scouring Ravelry debating if I'm going to bother or not. I really can't decide! There's a part of me that just wants to be done already, so I may forgo them. I should note I also haven't decided how much tapering I want in the sleeves.

In good news, I can confirm that the Álafoss Lopi can handle being ripped and reknit multiple times.

The next challenge will be the zipper. When I started this project, Joann's was still in business.

This is going much faster now with the correct number of stitches. There’s still a long way to go before I work the sleeves.

It’s already at 20cm!

On the one hand, I'm pleased to report all the maths for my jacket are correct. My knitting matches my gauge swatch.

I've made progress and have over 10 inches of length.

However.

Isn't there always a however?

However the number I used to start, my "key" number, was off.

No, not by an inch or two. That would've been easy to work and adapt (either too small or too large).

No, my key number is off by 12 inches. This key is the body circumference at the bottom hem.

I looked at my notes and they state "circ match buddy cardigan" and somehow I measured that it is 46.

This morning I remeasured my favourite thrift store cardigan[1]. It's 34 inches.

Why I never paused to think how this number was MUCH more than anything I prefer to knit for myself (especially after the PK Pullover), I do not know.

Later today I plan to sit outside in the sun, it's supposed to be a high of 65°F today, and rip it all out and cast on again, this time with a much more reasonable number.

So on one hand I can do maths, on the other hand I can't ... brain.

I could be creative and put some decreases and turn this into an A-line jacket and make this miscalculation into a feature and not a bug, but I don't want that. My hope is for a close but not tight fitting jacket.

Notes

[1] It's affectionately called the Buddy cardigan because the colouring in part matches my beloved cat Buddy who we lost far to a stroke in 2018 (then we lost Shadow to the same type of stroke in 2022).

this isn’t knitting itself. It also is in some sort of twilight zone. I keep knitting and it feels as if there’s no progress.

I need to spend time knitting this. I’m not a huge fan of 5mm circular needles but these clover bamboo needles aren’t horrible. I’m sure once other projects and life let me sit and knit it’ll feel like progress. For now it feels bogged down in getting started.