I wanted to tell you all about how I finally finished the Flower Back Sweater yesterday after a two-year battle with the pattern. I wanted to share in the glory of this great achievement. I wanted to tell you that it was blocking on my dining room table and getting itself ready for the white flowers I will attach to it. I wanted to say I could have finished pictures by the end of the week.
Well, I can’t lie to you. And I certainly can’t tell you any of this. Why, you ask? Because the yarn dye in my Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple in American Beauty #179 is running no matter how many vinegar baths I have tried. So far the total is three. I already tried just wool wash and then every time after a vinegar bath, I try a wool wash, and the color runs. Tonight I have to try a boiling water/vinegar bath and if that doesn’t work, this top may never be finished. I just don’t know what else to do.
I have to say, that this part is very disappointing. To say that I have the top 95% complete but then to be stalled by some stupid dye issue is just infuriating. It’s like I can see the shiny object nearly in my grasp, yet I just can’t reach.
I’ve already had to accept some losses with this top: first I had to rework the pattern a gazillion times when my gauge was off. Then the pattern isn’t even written well. It’s missing a number of clarifications that would make it easier to understand. Also if you follow it to the letter (regardless of the fact that you may need to rework the pattern because your row gauge is off), the pattern doesn’t even work out. I wanted to make the deep low V-neck and if I followed the pattern correctly, the top would become a dress and the V wouldn’t start until above my bra line. Not exactly how the item was pictured. Now I get that everyone’s body shape is different and when making a handknit, it’s every knitter’s job to know their own body, but this frakkin thing is ridiculous. It should say something that only about 20 some odd individuals have tried to make it, leaving a number of frustrated comments about the pattern. Of course, all of this appeared on Ravelry after I had purchased the very expensive Tilli Tomas yarn and very confusing pattern.
Did I mention how I’ve knit this thing up at least four times over a two-year period? Disgusting. I am a committed knitter and with the exception of an afghan that is a lifetime project, a shawl that got pushed aside by other projects and my first official sweater that I took on as a newbie knitter with very little experience, I have finished projects in a timely and competent fashion. I’m no dummy knitter. Need of more advanced education? Sure. But I’m not stupid. This pattern has challenged my will to keep knitting. And frankly, my dear, I don’t like it!
In the end though, I will be satisfied with my top. The V is not as deep as I originally intended, but now I’ll be able to wear a bra, the length is just right for my body and the color will look great on me. I also have some leftover beautiful silk yarn to create some accessory for the top. It’s just getting to the end here that’s proving difficult. One day … maybe one day …
I had two thoughts about this post:
1) You are a remarkably persistent knitter. A project that takes two years and four full frogs gets stuffed into a corner, and ultimately, it will probably be frogged so I can repurpose the yarn.
2) I am constantly gauging my status on a project by how far along I am on the knitting. Sometimes, a project that I thought was “95% complete” still had lots of work to be done. (Sometimes, it’s complicated finishing work, and I should have known it’d take forever. Sometimes, it is something unexpected, like evil, evil dye problems.) I have tried to set my expectations differently, so I know just because I have completed, say, half the knitting on a project, that doesn’t mean I have completed half the project. It’s more like I have completed half of the fun part of the project. 😐
Anyway, I am amazed by how long you’ve stuck with this, and how quickly the last bit of knitting went after such a long time, and I am confident you will be *really* done with it soon enough, and you will look super-hot in the finished product.
I'm not sure if the yarn hadn't cost as much as it did if I would've stuck with it as long as I did. Although my Kyoto sweater took me three years (but I started it as a newbie and had no idea what I was doing so I had to take it out to try again).
I totally get the percentage of finished thing. I probably now have to change my percentage of finished since the dye thing is causing such issues. When I finished knitting though I thought I was good.
Really the struggles I had was with gauge and the pattern not working out at all. Once I got past where to start the V (which I made up on my own since the pattern is stupid) then the knitting was pretty easy to workout. I had to make some slight adjustments to the pattern as I knit though.
Overall I think it'll be nice too. I want to wear the top next weekend so I'm motivated to get it finished too. Pictures soon … I hope. 🙂