Mi Bella Paquita es rifinito
I first saw Marnie McLean's Bella Paquita pattern about a year or two--could even be three--ago and thought that this was the most beautiful knitted sweater I had ever seen. I knew if I could knit that sweater, I could knit ANYTHING!
Well knitting this beautiful sweater over the past 2 months has been a journey and a half, not to mention one of my most painful knitting experiences. Painful, cause I'm lazy and there was way too much sewing and reckoning going on. Also,
because I did the bottom first (see the pic) thinking that would be the easiest to knit...it was. Then I did the three top pieces as one. Again, the laziness factored in here, cause I hate sewing seams. Then, I couldn't figure how to bind off the shoulder seams and work the decreases/increases, so I started the lace.
Now the lace was a treat. My regular side came out really nice, but when I started the reverse, for some reason my gauge was off. So after doing the same number of repeats on each side, when I folded it in half the regular side was about 2 inches longer. The whole thing pissed me off and I decided to put this knitting aside and look for something else to do. I never took pics of top pieces and lace pieces while in progress. I just couldnt look at those pieces sitting there, unfinished. Mocking me.
Oh and then there were the sleeves. Those weren't too bad, I did them at the same time on a cable needle. The bind off decreases were a bit traumatic, but I muddled through. But oh my the sewing. The sewing, the endless sewing.
Finally, I bit the bullet, I managed the bind offs and the decreases. Adjusted the lace - I only did 12 rather than the 14 required for my size sweater and adjusted for the guage problem with some light blocking and lots of pulling during the SEWING to the bodice. And voilà the top was done. Only then did I realize to my horror that since I'd done the bottom first, there would be no simple pick up and knit stitches from the provisional edge. I was going to have to graft these two separate pieces together. HORROR!! I had to learn how to kitchner before I could put the dang thing together.
But I did, one loverly Sunday afternoon. Kids were at friends houses, hubby was EXTREMELY supportive and whoo hooo!!! it be done.
Well...there's still those pesky little ends that I refused to cut and weave in incase I had to frog...but its done. I'll post pics soon.
But yeah me.
Well knitting this beautiful sweater over the past 2 months has been a journey and a half, not to mention one of my most painful knitting experiences. Painful, cause I'm lazy and there was way too much sewing and reckoning going on. Also,
because I did the bottom first (see the pic) thinking that would be the easiest to knit...it was. Then I did the three top pieces as one. Again, the laziness factored in here, cause I hate sewing seams. Then, I couldn't figure how to bind off the shoulder seams and work the decreases/increases, so I started the lace.Now the lace was a treat. My regular side came out really nice, but when I started the reverse, for some reason my gauge was off. So after doing the same number of repeats on each side, when I folded it in half the regular side was about 2 inches longer. The whole thing pissed me off and I decided to put this knitting aside and look for something else to do. I never took pics of top pieces and lace pieces while in progress. I just couldnt look at those pieces sitting there, unfinished. Mocking me.
Oh and then there were the sleeves. Those weren't too bad, I did them at the same time on a cable needle. The bind off decreases were a bit traumatic, but I muddled through. But oh my the sewing. The sewing, the endless sewing.
Finally, I bit the bullet, I managed the bind offs and the decreases. Adjusted the lace - I only did 12 rather than the 14 required for my size sweater and adjusted for the guage problem with some light blocking and lots of pulling during the SEWING to the bodice. And voilà the top was done. Only then did I realize to my horror that since I'd done the bottom first, there would be no simple pick up and knit stitches from the provisional edge. I was going to have to graft these two separate pieces together. HORROR!! I had to learn how to kitchner before I could put the dang thing together.
But I did, one loverly Sunday afternoon. Kids were at friends houses, hubby was EXTREMELY supportive and whoo hooo!!! it be done.
Well...there's still those pesky little ends that I refused to cut and weave in incase I had to frog...but its done. I'll post pics soon.
But yeah me.
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