I have loved Sylvi by Mari Muinonen since I first saw it linked on one of the (many) blogs I read. At first, I was drawn by the colour, red being my favourite colour since Primary 3, sitting at a desk, colouring in a circle using a red crayon and watching the deep shade develop as I scrubbed away at the paper. I knew I would make one when the time was right and recently I was given a gift voucher for McAdirect as a thank you for knitting these little cardigans. So off I went to wool shop.
I had researched online for an appropriate subsitute wool as the yarn specified is Canadian made and the shipping charges put it outta my price league so chose to use Rowan Cocoon. I instantly went wrong as I didn't swatch. I really should have known better. Substitue yarn, test swatch for gauge. It really should have been a no brainer but hey! it's me.... lumber in and see what happens.
What happened was this.See that tape measure? The one that says 63 cm? Well, that was meant to read 91cm !!!!!!! Holy crap! 30cms is just far too much for blocking to cope with so it got riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipped. All 60 odd rows of it. Right.back.to.the.beginning. FACT!
It's all cast on now, using needles 4 sizes up and looking great. I am up to the arm shaping and it's had to be frogged another four times.
Gauge out ? Nope. I printed the pattern ages ago and didn't realise there had been an update to it. Here's me knitting, ripping, knitting, ripping ........ four times in total until I decided to check for errors online. Bingo!! The pattern haad been adjusted. The moral of the story is......
*check for tension before you start, especially if you are substituting yarn.
*check for pattern up[dates if it's been a whil since you printed off your online pattern
*Never give up ...... it's only wool and needles, we are humans and superior!
Photo's to follow tomorrow as my couch and carpet are the same colour as the yarn and hard to capture.
Bloody Sylvi.