Right before I left Canada, I wrapped up the knitting on my Coachella project. While I was at first quite pleased with myself for having finished my third project, and a top at that, looking at it now, after blocking, I’m not satisfied with it.
The positives:
I quite like the colours I chose. I think they work well together and create some interest. I also really enjoyed working with this yarn (once I figured out how to), and I like the way the yarn feels on my skin, and the visual texture it creates once knitted up.
Now, the negatives:
There are a number of problems with the way it turned out that, while individually are quite small, added up together have left me feeling that this particular project was not the success I had at first envisioned.
My first mistake was to knit the project in size Small, instead of X-Small, which was my original plan. For some reason, over the year between when I began the project, and then re-started the project, I had forgotten this. I also gained a bit of weight and figured a size Small would fit better in the end and in the ensuing years… however, I was wrong. Due to my minimal bust, I firmly believe an X-Small would have been more than enough. Even with my maximal bust-enhancing bra, the top sags too much in the centre (truly, outside of this application, these bras are a godsend for the bustly-challenged – they allow you to impress the most critical people: those who care the most about size, and will never see you naked).
As a result of this inaccurate sizing, the area around the busy sags too much. It’s not so much a cowl-neck as it is a saggy-underbust top. Which is not sexy.
I think I also knit the back much too tight. While I was nervous with the knitting in the beginning, so I knit a bit too loosely, I ended up gaining confidence by the time I got to the back, and therefore my stitches are tighter there. This means that now the top bit that’s supposed to roll down, only does so in the front – and in the back I have to draw it tight so it covers my neck, and more importantly, the bit of my bra that crosses so that it can be invisible.
I also bound-off much too tightly. This is not something I had considered and will have to be more careful of in future. It’s easy to cast-on with a reasonable tautness, I find, but my bind-offs are always three times tighter. I’m not sure why.
Finally, I had to add some short-rows to the back to make it the same length as the front. Again, due to having knit this the size up instead of X-Small, I ran out of turquoise yarn too quickly, which meant the bottom, which was supposed to only have a few rows of the plum yarn, has more plum in the back than in the front. Which looks awkward.
So, all in all, I’m proud of having finished this project – yes. But I’m not at all satisfied with it, and I’m debating knitting another one (with new yarn) to see if I can do it better next time. I’m not entirely sure what to do with this one. It’s not horrible, it’s wearable (at least at home on laundry day)… just my inner perfectionist is shouting at me to keep it in the closet and to wear something better tailored to my form. I don’t know, though. I’m going to wear it today, see whether or not people stare in horror at me, then I’ll decide what to do with it.