Christmas Knitting in Review—Part Four

It seems only fitting that I finish the Christmas Knitting in Review series before Epiphany.

Small Child 1 attends school where a uniform is required. Her main school color is pine green. Since it's not so easy to find cardigans for little girls in this color, I decided to knit her a sweater. I picked this pattern. It was recommended by my LYS and is top down, which means no seaming. Whoo hoo!



Problem—The pattern is written in these sizes: 2-4, 6-8, and 10-12. Small Child 1 wears a size 5.

Hmmm.

Ravelry to the rescue! Leanne recommended knitting the pattern on a smaller needle. Smaller needle = smaller gauge = smaller sweater. Her sweaters turned out great!

And everything was going along smoothly until I got to the sleeves. I picked up the stitches that had been placed on scrap yarn. A little wonky, but that can be blocked out, right? And I started following the pattern.

BIG MISTAKE! Can you see where this is going?

Smaller needle size = smaller stitch gauge. Smaller stitch gauge = good. Smaller needle size = smaller row gauge. Smaller row gauge, when it comes to sleeves = bad.



I started decreasing according to the pattern, not thinking about the fact that a smaller gauge would result in more rows per inch. I had arrived at the number of stitches for the cuff about two inches up the forearm. I knew something wasn't right. But did I rip it back? Of course not. I kept going and finished that sleeve. And then I knit a second one exactly like it. Like the wonky stitches, I thought that I could just block it.

A few hours later I called the sister-in-law to talk to her about the cardi. I told her of my fear that the sleeves would be too tight. We decided that the best course of action would be to wait to finish the sweater until Small Child 1 had tried it on.


Yes, Sweet Pea, I know that your sweater still has strings on it. Why? Because your Auntie Kim is an IDIOT!

Just as feared, the forearms of the sleeves are too tight. If I could guarantee that Small Child 1 would not grow in the next year, I could probably get away with them. But she's gonna grow. We just know it. The only logical course of action is to fix the sleeves, decreasing based on the actual row gauge rather than the pattern instructions. I explained to Small Child 1 that I would bring the sweater home, fix it, and send it back to her through the mail so that she could wear it back to school in January.

And then I accidentally left the damned thing in DC.