As knitters, but moreso as spinners, there are things so truly frightening that all we can do is make jokes about them, like:
"I'd better knit faster so I don't run out of yarn, ha ha!"
With commercial yarn, even a discontinued vintage commercial yarn, miracles happen. Someone on The Big Knitlist who only ever knits acrylic afghans for homeless shelters on even-numbered streets has a recently-dead distant relative who willed her a 60-foot container of Red Heart as well as two skeins of Patons Kismet (a lovely mohair-blend sportweight yarn from the seventies from which I made a gorgeous vest that got stolen out of my boyfriend's mother's house when we were visiting during summer break in grad school) colour #420 dye lot #17, which arrived yesterday, and you're saved. It happens. It could happen.
With your own handspun you tend to have a fairly high degree of certainty exactly how much of it exists in the world, making this fortuitous scenario considerably less possible.
Pretty, huh? Notice the lovely set-in sleeves, knitted top-down. Nice, huh?
But wait, what's that at the end of the (not yet long enough) sleeves? Let's draw yellow (DANGER! DANGER!) circles around those things:
And I have half a yard of yarn. Handpsun yarn. My own handspun yarn. All I spun of this yarn IN THE WORLD is in the picture above (except for the bits that I broke off so I could spit-splice, but that's mere inches).
Not funny.
So today I finally made a couple of cold calls to recruiters and head-hunters and the like, and I made a point of telling them that I think on my feet, I'm good a finding creative solutions to problems.
So I dug deeper into the handspun stash:
I'm not delighted, but I don't have a whole lot of choice, short of a complete rip and redesign, which has less appeal than you might imagine.
4 comments:
Ya know......"Bracelet" length sleeves are really in right now. Why I'm wearing one(well two) right now. Hey and your not to shabby at whipping up a nice bracelet now and then eh? Just saying.
I know they're in but (a) I hate them (b) what's the point WHEN A GARMENT IS FOR WARMTH and (c) they make me look stumpy and (d) what about next year when they look so hopelessly 2008?
Yes, it's a bitter fight between Fashion Forward and Classic Practicality.
Oooh, I was going to suggest 3/4 sleeves too, but having read your comment I see why that might not be your first choice. It's hard to tell from the photo how close that big skein of pink is, it looks close to the original shade. But if it's noticeable you could rip back a bit of the bottom ribbing and use some there as well to make it look intentional. Or there's always the good ol' overdye standby to bring it all together.
Oh! I just thought of something. I remember a sweater in Interweave Knits (?) a few years ago with 3/4 sleeves and then a false sleeve in a contrasting color underneath to give the illusion of layers - I think it was red with white under layers in more of a lace stitch. Sort of like arm dickeys haha. I don't know... has the potential for great or horrible. Hard to tell.
I think the false sleeve is kind of cool and all, but I'm afrad it again exacerbates the dumpiness factor, and has the potential for looking like exactly what it is: a hack.
The big skein is close, but slightly too pink, and after consultation (with Amy, John and Luise - it was an eating, uh, spinners' day), I've decided to overdye it sort of sameish but darker red-violet and replace part of the bottom welt to make partial cuffs, so that cuffs and welts will all have a darker edging. Actually, last night I'd decided on the plan, just not the yarn. I wasn't keen on anything too contrasty, as I really like the mono look here, as it has interesting enough details anyway, but oh well.
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