Disingenuous

What a big word just to confess that I mislead you.  As I am sure is clear by now, I didn't finish the hoodie in time for E's birthday last month.  In fact, I knew I wouldn't finish it in time when I wrote that post.  She received a front, a back and part of a sleeve on the day itself.  Unbelievably, she was grateful I was making her something and she pronounced it cool (or whatever word is now used instead of cool).

But while I was disingenuous about the original deadline, I didn't think I was that far off.  I estimated I'd needed another week at most.  Hardly. I sewed the last seam yesterday -- June 2nd -- two weeks late.  Never having actually made a hoodie before, I didn't count on the size of that damn hood.  It's huge, look at it:

Texas has nothing on that hood.  You could fit the moon in that hood.  Then the edging.  She's lucky I'm done in the same year as her birthday. 

I did the best I could to make knitting the vast acreage of stockinette more interesting.  I played with creating matching increases and decreases to make the shaping a bit more interesting.  To match increases on the side seams I knit into the front and back of the same stitch. I wanted the little bars to show instead of opting for a less visible M1, my standard.  To keep the bars placed the same distance from the seam, on the right hand side the increases were placed after K1.  On the left side I made my increases in the third stitch before the end of the row.  I know, the excitement is overwhelming, but I felt momentarily clever.  Don't worry, I won't bore you with the fudge I came up with to make my right leaning decreases look more like SSKs.

To top it off, this pattern called for more seams than a Project Runway challenge.  The hood was to be knit in two halves and seamed up the back.  In addition, the hood was to be knit while attached to only the back of the sweater.  As written, the front edges were cast on and then sewn onto the neck edge along the front, after the hood and its ribbing were completed and the shoulder seams joined.  Hood edging and neck edging were to be knit separately and then seamed together. 

No, there may be some advantages to this construction -- less bulk in your lap when knitting, firmer seams -- but no, not happening here.  I knit that sucker in one piece and there were no seams on the hood or the edging.

Despite these nagging details, the finished product is softer than you can believe and will look great on the teenage recipient who is too busy celebrating the end of the school year to be bothered with anything as mundane as a sweater.  Once she's available, she's wearing it, even if it's 80+ degrees out.

I'll post the gory details on Ravelry once I'm finished with this post.

BTW, Chris accused me of imitating the Harlot in my last post, and I have to admit it's true.  I had just finished Things I Learned from Knitting in preparation for seeing her later that weekend in Philadelphia.  Just think of that post as a form of homage.

I saw her.  I even saw the sock.

And Marina, I'll get you that report about my April (and May) knitting tomorrow!

Comments

[Michelle]

Two weeks is a blink of time in the scheme of things. For example, how far past your due date did you carry your daughter? Subtract that from your total. How many times did you wake up at 3am for her? Drive her to a friend's house? I think when you add up all the time she'll owe YOU a few sweaters.

[Marina]

Tomorrow, as in 06/04/2008? It's a date! Be still my heart!

Good idea to get rid of some of those extra seams. Now I know where to get help for matching increases/decreases when I do a FI with princess lines ;-)

[Chris]

Hee hee - busted you! :) That looks like a really cozy hoodie. I'm WAY lazy - I would've knit the whole darn thing in the round, seams be damned.

We're demanding commenters, aren't we?!

[Dr.Steph]

Glad to hear it's done and a success. And really, even if late, it was fast in the grand scheme of things.

[Carrie K]

Projected finishing times, in knitspeak, include a built in annual cushion.

At least mine do.

Very nice hood! A wee small for the moon but perfect for a teenager.

[Wanda]

Hey, but you did finish it. Thats what counts!

[Lorraine]

Anmiryam- My daughter would have said it was "sick" or "whack"-

[meg]

Anmiryam- I tagged you for a meme on the blog. If you don't feel like doing it, don't sweat it.

[Rachel]

Would you mind helping me with the pattern? I'm an infant in the big world of knitting. So I've got all my pieces done, XL hood sewn on, ribbing finished, but those arm/top-front-to-back seams are buggers. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what is supposed to go where.

Help?!?