Second thoughts

Sometimes you start a project and everything goes swimmingly. You just know it's going to work. And other times, doubt nags. And nags. And nags.

I've already whined about how I managed to forget how to execute a presentable cast on for the hybrid sweater sleeves. Fortunately, casting on doesn't last very long, and I've been happily zipping up the arms for the past 2 nights. Things have slowed down sufficiently at work that I am not bringing work home to fill my evenings as much, so I've been getting knitting done! This is also big yarn after Irtfa'a, which makes it feel even faster. I forgot that Branden took the camera with him, and haven't charged the other one, so I still have no pictures for you. You'll just have to take my word for it...I have gotten knitting done. The sleeves are up above my elbows now.

And, of course, I'm now having second thoughts about the sleeves. I didn't start increasing as soon as I usually would have, because I wanted to get through the cable colorwork before beginning to increase. That means that the sleeves haven't gotten big as fast as they normally would. In fact, they fit my forearms pretty nicely. This is a problem. This is not a sweater for me. This is a sweater for Branden, and while I would not say that he has big, bulky forearms, I would definitely say that they are larger than mine.

Now, I measured off of the swatch to figure out how may stitches to use. Generally my circular gauge is almost exactly the same as my flat gauge. I know that this yarn does tend to grow a good bit with blocking, but I really like the stitch spacing that I have now, and wouldn't want to rely on stretching during blocking to make much of an increase in size. I also don't know how well the colorwork will stretch out with blocking. My swatches tend to lie, so I generally tend not to trust them. I didn't want the sleeves to be baggy, but I also had no intention of making them form fitting.

So, I am now having second thoughts about continuing on this project. Branden isn't home, so I can't make him try them on and convince myself that it will be ok. I also have a sneaking suspicion that I know I need to frog and don't want to admit it. It's only 70 rows on two sleeves, but I really just don't want to rip it out. I don't usually have any problem frogging a piece; I think it's just that this is the only knitting progress that I've made in a couple of weeks, and I want to think it will just work out with blocking. (My sister's sweater definitely increased by at least 10 inches with blocking, though hers had much more ribbing and cable in it, so a lot of the stretch came from that. And, like I said before, I don't want to overstretch during blocking and end up separating the stitches too much.

I think I'm going to put this project aside until tomorrow night when Branden will be home. Then I will see just how bad it is, and probably rip all the way back to the beginning (I'm not redoing that cast on, though! The ribbing stays!).

Alternatively, I could finish the sleeves and claim them for myself, seeing that they do fit me quite nicely. This would require a new pair of sleeves for Branden, more buying of yarn, and knitting two sweaters from the same yarn. It seems better to frog, though I really wouldn't object to having a sweater in these colors...

Edited to add:
Wait. Did I say wait? I don't think I'm very good at waiting right now. Nope. Not at all good at waiting. Would it make any sense to put this project down for a whole day now that I finally have time to work on it? I think not. First sleeve is frogged. Second is about to follow. Knitting will commence immediately, and 70 rows of sleeve will take absolutely no time to redo. Don't know what's come over me lately...frogging is just part of knitting, for goodness' sake!

Edited again to add:
Have you ever noticed how much fun it can be to watch knitting un-knit? I'm not sure why I'm so amused by the little popping sound as rows and rows of little stitches come out. Maybe I've been sitting at home alone too much this week. Good thing Branden comes home tomorrow. I really should stop adding edits to the post, but then again, it is titled second thoughts...