Pipe Dreams
9 Apr 2005 • Mariah •
I had some problems with Mariah last night. The intention was that if I worked really, really hard I might finish the sweater and get to wear it today. I didn’t bargain that I might have to rip out everything.
The only thing I had left to knit was the hood. I had already seamed everything. The problem ahead of me was that I have never knit an adult-sized hood before, and I’d already determined that the hood in the pattern as written for size XXL wasn’t right. I had to make it up as I went along.
I instinctively tried to shape the hood by visually following the look of another hoodie I have. I managed to get the shaping mostly correct, but I’m going to have to rip out the whole thing anyway. The sweater doesn’t call for any binding-off before shaping the hood and while this just might be okay for the smaller sizes, it certainly isn’t okay for the XXL. There is no integrity at the back collar to keep the sweater from stretching out uncontrollably and the hood didn’t naturally fall or drape into shape.
The whole hood is going to need to be ripped back to the collar area, where I’ve decided to keep the stitches before the front raglan decreases live and I’m going to bind off everything else. Then I’ll be picking up for the hood and knitting from that point.
This means Mariah has to go away for a little while. I just can’t rip back three skeins worth of knitting and feel like knitting it back up right away. I’ve got to get a little project in there in the meantime.
6 Comments
[Here via Eklectika.] Too bad! But I think you’re definitely on the right track. I bound off and then picked up stitches for the hood, and it worked really well.
sarah irene · Apr 11 · 2:55 pm
ugh, that is just painful! hopefully the end result will be worth it though, and of course it will be better than going with it and hating it later. Good luck! This definitely calls for a treat for yourself, though!
I wish I could afford a treat! Anyway, I went back to Mariah sooner than I thought. Last night I frogged and reworked and I think my mental picture is right on…it’s working out really well. I’m going to spend the afternoon knitting and I’ll have some details later.
Laura, I have me a giant head, to house my giant brains. Seriously, though, what I had knit before was much too wide and big a hood, because I hadn’t brought the neckline in closely enough. This time the hood will take a bit less yarn to complete, I think. We’ll see when I’m done. I want to make sure the hood is roomy enough that it drapes while it’s on, kind of like a cloak hood. I don’t want to look like an Olympic speed skater. :)
I’m sorry about your problems with the hood. I didn’ t realize that what worked for the small size might not work in the larger sizes. You’ve probably seen the ideas we’ve been tossing around in the mariahalong list for fixing the larger hoods, but if you come up with something better please let me know. I’m still trying to work out what’s the easiest way to adjust the pattern so that I can forward corrections to Knitty.