Intarsia Disaster
It was a sad, sad sight to behold late last night. I gently washed the pieces of Jake’s Christmas sweater in the sink and laid them out on the blocking board, only to find that the lopsided tiger, located front and center, had unraveled itself beyond the point of repair. sob.
Actually, I’m not as crushed about this turn of events as you might think. I love this sweater design and I’d love to give it to my nephew this Christmas. . . but I wasn’t really very impressed with my intarsia skills to begin with. I suffered through the tangles of yarn and squinted at the chart oh-so-carefully, but the result was rather deformed. Lumpy in places where I pulled the yarn too tight, holey in places where I forgot to twist the color changes. I did some creative weaving in of the loose ends to — I thought — repair the holes, and I was hoping that blocking would help smooth out the lumps. But underneath it all I was nagged by the feeling that I could do better if only I had more time.
So, now there’s really no question about it since the darn thing self-destructed. On the bright side, I have a perfectly nice back and two sleeves and enough yarn leftover to rip and redo the front. And, fortunately I was making a larger-than-necessary size — so it’ll still be able to go to the intended recipient at a later date.
Meantime, it’s on to plan B: a quick hat in chunky yarn. No more complicated stuff until next year.