What was that I was saying the other day about knitting socks?  Something poetic and designed to extoll my love for the craft?  Scratch that.  I think I was momentarily high on yarn fumes. 

This morning as I lovingly stitched away on my Jaywalkers, I admired the chevrons and thought to myself what a glorious sock this was going to be.  Hey, why not try it on just to get a glimpse of that future glory?  The cuff was done, the heel turned (not a single mistake – yay me!), and 5 inches of instep finished when I slipped this beauty past my toes and up to my ankle.  Hmmmm…. starting to feel a little snug….must tug harder…. what the hell?  It does not fit.  Not even close to fitting.  Not even with a little crisco.  All that work.  Wasted.

But in every knitter’s world there is a little yin and yang.  With every bad comes a little good.  Enter Juliet.

Juliet began with the best of intentions for a KAL with the Sexy Knitter’s Club, October 2007.  I was using yarn repurposed from a disastrous attempt at the Textured Tunic from Fitted Knits for the Fitted Knits KAL I had joined earlier that same year.  But after knitting away for a while I quickly lost steam and started in on the slew of Christmas gifts I was attempting to finish in time for the holiday and one thing led to another and that “another” was never Juliet.  I pulled it out again a month ago after finishing a test knitting deadline and thought to myself, I really need to finish this.  I did a few lace repeats and then put it aside again.  So last weekend I finally decided it didn’t feel very good to have this 9 month old UFO sitting around and it was high time I finished it.  I had to be close, right?  I pulled out my sweater and put the stitches on some waste yarn and then tried it on.  What the?  It was the perfect length this whole time and I hadn’t even realized it!  All I needed to do was knit 6 rows and I’d be finished!  How did I not realize this for the last month and a half????  Maybe because I’m a distracted dumbass?  So I promptly finished the last 6 rows, blocked for a week and attached the loops and buttons over this past weekend.  Voila!  The Yin to my Yang (or is it the Yang to my Yin?)!  What a good feeling to know my knitting universe is happily balanced.  For now.

 

 

Pattern: Juliet by Zephyr Style (on Ravelry here)

Yarn: Approximately 11.5 balls Karabella Aurora Bulky color #19

Needles: Size 10.5 bamboo 29″ circular 

Mods: Can’t really think of any, other than deciding where I wanted the garter stitch portion on the top of the sweater to end and how many lace repeats I wanted.

New Techniques: Nope.

Time Lapse:  October 14, 2007 - July 12, 2008 (Yikes!)

Comments: What a relief to have finally finished this sweater!! And it was nice to have found the perfect use for that $80 worth of Karabella Aurora I purchased too.  I really like this sweater. I’m not sure I love it, but I do really like it. It makes me look a little fat but I will totally wear it anyway! It’s cozy. I wasn’t sure about the Karabella at first but after blocking it has an amazing drape that I love and the lace really pops. There were some puckery sections in the back that I wasn’t too hot on which totally worked themselves out during the blocking process. My only gripe was that the sweater grew lengthwise after blocking and now seems a bit too long, even though my husband says it’s perfect.  The buttons, they were free with the June issue of Simply Knitting and luckily, were exactly what I’d had in mind.  Another happy FO! 

 

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And what photo shoot would be complete without at least one outtake?

 

 

Happy Monday Bloggy Peeps!