Friday afternoon, I was starting to feel like I could really finish my Maxfield cardigan by this weekend, including the blocking.
Yesterday I started sewing on the front bands and realized that I’d made a mistake. Not a terrible mistake, not an “OMG I have to start this cardigan all over!” mistake. But a really dumb mistake that should not have happened.
Sorry for the iPhone photos, but I didn’t feel like setting up the tripod for real photos of a temporarily broken project
Pro-tip: When you make the body of a cardigan longer, you should correspondingly make the front bands of said cardigan longer.
(This particular example only applies if you’re knitting a cardigan with front bands added after the body is finished, but really, if you adjust one part of the pattern, remember you adjusted something and apply that adjustment to any other parts of the pattern that might be affected by said adjustment.)
My fix for the time being is to mattress stitch the other front to the back raglan stitches (as I did on the first side) and then un-graft the front band join and extend the bands to the point at which they meet in the back without a crazy gap between the pieces. Trust me, the cardigan will be more flattering that way.
Not only does this mean more knitting has to be done, and then more mattress stitching, but THEN there will be more stitches to pick up for the ribbing and I most definitely cannot finish all of that by Tuesday afternoon, at which point I had determined I had to get the cardigan in the bath in order for it to be completely dry and wearable by Saturday morning.
This is not my first knitting rodeo, though sometimes, I fool myself.
Still, it’s looking pretty swank so far. Which only makes me more annoyed that I didn’t knit this fast enough to take advantage of the cardigan weather while we had it.
Completely unrelated: If you like knitting patterns (and I think you do) and helping those in need, consider picking up Suburban Knits’ k2tog: Oklahoma Tornado Relief. Twenty dollars gets you twenty patterns and 100% of the profits will be donated to help the people affected by the recent tornado get back on their feet. There are some fantastic patterns in there, including Targetty, Ordway, and Pocketses.
Oh noes! I am shortening some sleeves on a cardigan that’s knit sideways right now and I am totally afraid I’ll forget to do the same mods for each piece! Looks like your cardi will be worth it all in the end, on the plus side!
Thank goodness I read this post, as the cardigan I am working on has front bands added after the body is knit. Thank you for the tip!