Fitting the Harvest Cardigan

[janestarz]

It's King's Day! Congratulations to our King, who celebrates his birthday today so we can all get a free day off.

I got up at seven to get some homework out of the way and that turned out to be not as much work as I feared, so I'm taking a break, changing the bed linens, making tea, taking selfies and writing about my Harvest Cardigan.

This yarn was bought when Kim and I visited 't Smitje at the start of December 2014, when we were pretty sure something wasn't going right with the company we both worked for. We were right, and were both let go at the end of January 2015. I cast the cardigan on in February, and I've been working on it on and off.
Recently, I tried it on and to my surprise I was already near the belt of my trousers, so nearly at the hem. The hem is done in garter stitch for 10 cm, so I could already smell the end. What was less fortunate was the fit.

I've gained some/a lot of weight and am now truly pear-shaped, which means that the straight lines of the cardi are struggling with the shape somewhat. I can already tell that if I continue in this way, it'll not fit nicely over my hips and butt. Worse, I suspect that if I finish it as it is and wear it, I'll get annoyed by my cardigan's front flaps always moving to the side of my body and flapping under my arms all the time.
I asked for advice on the Tin Can Knits forums on Ravelry, and they suggested frogging back a ways and incorporating some increases to make the shape more rounded at the bottom.

Now, this is an unblocked version, so it's a bit tighter than it will be after blocking (I need a stitch and a half more on 10 cm, which is completely do-able). I've used a shawl pin to close the top "button" and placed pins on either side to mark until where I want to frog back.



As you can see, the fabric pulls away at the "button" but it does fit (and will, after blocking). However, you can see the trouble rising a bit lower in my figure, as my hips and buttocks need ample fabric to cover them. In my defense, the cable is a bit too short to allow the fabric to go all the way around.

Now look at this picture:



This is without pulling, and you see the garter edge at the front opening is very nearly overlapping. I think it is just missing 2 - 3 cm to fully overlap properly. And I'm not sure if blocking will fix that.
But it also means that I might not have to frog 15 centimeters back, since the fit issue is not directly below the bust. It's just the hips and butt ("just"). It might work if I frog just 10 centimeters back!

You can see the red pin in the fabric. I think I'm going to frog back to a point slightly below that, in between the top two buttonholes. That looks like a good place to start my increases.
To be frogged continued...soon I hope.

Comments

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Passen en maten nemen van gebreide kledingstukken is zoo lastig! Ik verbaasde mij erover dat mij Hilja zoveel groter geworden is na een keer wassen en blocken. Ik ben nu met een t-shirt bezig (een Unikat) en heb bewust gekozen voor de kleinere maat. Het patroon springt van bust 83 naar 91 en ik zit ergens in het midden. In veel patronen staat dat als je ergens tussenin valt dat je voor de kleinere moet kiezen. Helaas weet ik pas als het af is of het goed komt.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Klopt. Van de Annell (de wol waar ik de Harvest Cardi mee brei) is ook al door Moonwise geroepen dat die een stuk voller en groter wordt na het blocken. Voor sokkenwol is dat ook een goeie eigenschap denk ik zo, een steviger en nog dichter op elkaar zittend breisel is natuurlijk slijtvaster.
Maar of dat met Unikat ook zo werkt weet ik niet. Voor katoen wordt wel gewaarschuwd dat het vreselijk uit kan zakken, dus ik denk dat je verstandig bent om de kleinere van de 2 maten te kiezen.