Crazy For A Challenge

Friday, I wondered if it would be crazy to take apart and re-do Diagonal to add some length. Well, crazy, I am. At least, crazy for a challenge.

Laurie M gave me some great suggestions in the comments, on how to add some length without taking apart the sweater. But the sweater was apart by the time I read her comments. Dang.

So today, another of our wild and windy, cool, fall days and where is Diagonal?

Right on my knitting chair.

Left front lengthened. Right front lengthened. Back - almost lengthened.

After that it will be sewing in the sleeves, and adding button bands. Totally do-able in an 'done before dinner' fashion, right?

I sure hope so. Now the only concern is whether I have enough yarn. I'll keep you posted.

A Record Set

Each Saturday, my site reader sends me a report with the number of blog readers in the past week.

This week, a record was set. 176 readers. Yahoo! A far cry from many of the bogs, I read - cosmicplutoknits; freshislefibers; the soxophoneplayer; teri's knitblog , I am sure, but still a number that pleases me. Thank you dear readers.

Interesting too, is to see where you come from. Some of the cities on the list were Simcoe, Hanover, Toronto, Port Elgin and Tillsonburg ( Hi Dad) Ontario. There's Duncan, BC; Hermitage, Tennessee; Mooresville, North Carolina; Silver Spring, Maryland; Rochester and Bronx New York, and Kellogg, Idaho. Cities in Germany, Latvia that I couldn't even pornounce. Wow!

Interesting too, to see what time of day you read. There are early morning readers, late night readers and Shhhh.... some readers, I am sure, use the boss' time to read the blog. Don't worry, I won't tell.

Again, thank you all.

Modelling

As promised, modelled shots of Diagonal Rib. Light and colour are pathetically poor - a reflection of my photography skills - well, lack thereof - rather than the sweater.

When I posted a few days ago about not making any changes to the pattern, I forgot one thing. Rather than casting off at the shoulders, I short short-rowed them, then joined the shoulders together with a three needle bind-off . It makes for a much nicer shoulder, IMHO.

It's a lovely sweater. warm and cozy with great detail in the diagonal ribbing, but a little bit short. Hmmmm. I wonder if I should take it apart and lengthen it a bit?

On an normal sweater, with normal ribbing, lengthening is an easy task. Just cut above the ribbing, knit down the extra length, then finish off with new ribbing. But this is not normal ribbing. This is diagonal ribbing. Another story altogether. Instead of cutting the bottom to add a bit of length, this sweater would have to be de-constructed from the top down and length added to the body between the ribbing and the armholes.

It would mean, finding all the ends, I so nicely finished off. Starting with the button bands, then the shoulder seams ,then the sleeve seams. Only once all those pieces had all been 'de-sewn', could I start to rip the body down to the armholes.

Some would say I'm crazy. Some would say, I like a challenge. Over the weekend, I will decided which I am.

Happy Knitting.