Ammonite

When SweetGeorgia Yarns announced their Spring Make-Along, I immediately knew what I wanted to make; at some point I realized that I was the only participant daft enough to try for a sweater (in fingering weight, no less!), but amazingly there was no disaster. (Well, there was—a little bit; read on.)

I bound off on Thursday the 23rd, the day before the deadline, and into the blocking water it went. 30 minutes later I zealously squeezed what I thought was all the excess water into a towel, and pinned the sweater out with all due ceremony.

On Friday, picture & submission deadline day, the sweater was still hanging onto some moisture. Undaunted, I blowdried it on medium. (I know, I know…) Unduly pleased with myself, I began to unpin.

Reader, the sweater was still wet. Not damp; wet. The underside was as almost as sopping as it had been after my towel-squeezing. Immediately the lace borders, which should have held nice crisp scallops, began to spring back. The stockinette fabric began to warp out of shape as soon as I tried to pick the sweater up to assess the damage. In the words of Mark Twain, let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.

Enough melodrama—the sweater didn’t look so bad while hanging, so I wrangled it into shape on Trudy and took pictures.

A little wonky, especially near the hem where the circumference is wider and Trudy doesn’t support the fabric; but on the whole, things could have been worse.

Next day I reblocked (but not before applying towels with the doggedness of Hector defending Troy) and waited a full 48 hours before even thinking about unpinning. The result?

I used Madelinetosh Twist Light in their discontinued Fallen Cloud colorway; while it requires fairly aggressive blocking and should be completely dry before unpinning (believe me, I know), I do love the finished fabric. It drapes well, is smooth and soft, and has just a hint of sheen. The pattern calls for US 6 needles, but to get anywhere close to gauge I had to use 3s; even then my gauge was slightly looser, and the resulting sweater ended up several inches longer with a tad more positive ease. However, the final fit ended up being perfect, so we shall call it deliberate.

The only major modification I made was to shorten the sleeves, which would have ended up at a monastic length on my short arms if I’d made them according to the pattern. Some fudging was required in other bits of the instructions for me, but nothing serious.

The final result of all these shenanigans is that I will be taking home (that is, SweetGeorgia will mail me…) a hank of their new limited edition Seasilk Lace, which was Third Prize in the Make-Along; so look out for a fun lace project in that at some point in the future. And I did get a very nifty sweater out of it.