Monday, October 15, 2007

to frog or not to frog...

Along with voting on what to do with the leftover (very cute) fabric from KZ's chairs, please also vote on the following question: What do I do with my ugly knitting? Do I rip it out? Or do I try to dart it so that it fits me? Or do I do something else with it? I've heard pretty widely varied responses in person, so I thought I'd try to collect ideas a little more systematically.

Here's the ugly knitting:
Here's one suggested way to dart it:

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

5 comments:

CH said...

I vote for darting!

Elizabeth said...

I vote for darting too. (Though I kinda like the way it's wavy at the bottom undarted.) Does dart=frog?

Also, Hi Maura!

kzwick said...

I vote for darting but with the following caveat. I think this picture fails to reveal just how much fabric you are holding behind your back in that picture. I think it is possible that darting could make a sweater that's not so bad much worse. I defintely vote AGAINST tearing it out. Why don't you try the blocking method? The worst thing that can happen is that it wont work, right?

HEB said...

Frogging is ripping something out... the history of that term that I've read is that it comes from the idea that you have to "rip it, rip it" thus sounding like a frog. This explanation isn't entirely satisfying to me, so if anyone knows a more accurate explanation, let me know.

I guess I should have had CH take a picture of my back, too. KZ is right that there's a lot of fabric back there. Maybe I'll mess around with it over my break next week and potentially add more picture options.

Churchma said...

I think this sweater has potential as is. I would try blocking before I tried adding darts. If you decide on darts - you can experiment by sewing them loosely with a very contrasting yarn and huge long stitches so they'll be easy to take out. Once you get it the way you like it, I've had great success with using sewing machine on handknits.

I'd never heard the term Frog, but I've sure done a lot of it in 35 years of knitting - but usually not with a project this far along. One gorgeous mohair sweater with a delicate leaf like pattern turned out so huge I couldn't wear it and I was terribly disappointed - until a much larger friend loved it and asked if she could buy it. After all, the joy is more in the knitting than the wearing anyway!