Two stitches forwards, and back, back, back.....again.

I spoke about the apologetic neckline on my Silk Tweed Sweater two weeks ago, didn`t I? And said that I had ripped it back down to the armhole line and left it on the needles ready to go, otherwise I knew I`d never get going with it again.

Well, fear not, I did get going with it again...and again...and again. Rowan Summer Tweed is a very easy yarn to frog, did you know? It unravels nicely without catching, does not go into an instant snarl on the floor and it`s easy to pick up the stitches again. Very well behaved yarn while frogging. Belive me. I know.

So...I got going again using the clever tactic of taking my other projects out of my knitting bag when I was next going to meet up with
Gourdongirl during yet another school holiday day. (I am fed up with school holiday days, did I say? ) Therefore I had to knit the Silk Tweed Sweater or...knit nothing. So I started the neckline divide again at the armholes.

Ten rows in I held it up and had a look. Hmmmm. The model in the picture of the sweater has...well, the bustline of a slim twenty year old and the neckline looks high on her, no? I have the bustline of a not-slim forty-plus year old and even with the best efforts of the finest support bra that money can buy in M&S can make my boobs look like hers. I put eighteen rows of short row shaping in the front, so that should tell you something. In fact, I`m beginning to wonder if the short row shaping is the problem? If it wasn`t there then I`d have to be constantly hauling the front of the sweater downwards during wear and the neckline would come down too. Maybe. Or perhaps I`d still have the neckline in the wrong place and the sweater wouldn`t fit in front either?

Anyway, back to the neckline divide. Still looked a bit skimpy. Conferred with Gourdongirl (also a busty gal) and we decided that yup, go for broke, still too high, put it lower. I could always sew it up a bit if it looked too indecent, or wear a camisole under. Sigh. Rippit..........

I ripped.....secure in the knowledge that though I was now taking the sweater back to below the armhole shaping I could only go so far, because I certainly wasn`t going to attempt to pick up a row part way through all the short row shaping, complete with 36 wrapped stitches. So this was the last time, yes?

Umm...no. About this time Thereyougothen walked in to Prestongrange Museum cafe. She`d brought her family down for the afternoon but as we three hadn`t seen each other since SkipNorth she sent her Hubby off round the site with the boys for a bit and sat down for a blether. Meanwhile I started knitting the neckline again using only half my brain and a quarter of my attention. I`d done this so many times already I didn`t need the pattern after all...or did I? I got back up to the point where I needed to put in the armhole shaping...then realise when I`d divided for the neck, I`d used the stitch count for above the armhole shaping, not below. So now, though the neckline was deep enough, it was also six stitches off centre.

I ripped it back for the third time. I started knitting the neckline again for the....fourth(?)...time. (I used a new ball of Summer Tweed here..even the best behaved yarn doesn`t like being ripped three times and knitted four, methinks.) This neckline has to be right this time round. There`s nowhere else it can go, and nothing else can go wrong, surely?

Well, nothing apart from me losing the piece of paper where I wrote down my altered row count for the shaping on the neck. So now I have one side of the neck done, nearly, and no way of duplicating this on the second side without a very, very careful inspection of the first side. And if I get it wrong, I`ll have to rip it again...or, more likely, throw it in the bin?

Wish me luck.....

On an aside, the sharp eyed among you may notice that I`m writing this at nearly 5.30 am my time. Up early? Yes, at four o`clock, actually. I have a good solid streaming cold and I was so hot and feverish I couldn`t sleep and had to get up for paracetamol. Then I decided I really, really wanted a cuppa so that`s me good and awake now. Hubby will be up soon to go to work, and the kids not long after. Not worth me going back to bed though I know I`ll feel dire by mid-afternoon. What is it about viruses and bugs? You get one, you get better...but before you get really 100% better another bug sneaks in through your lowered defences and pounces. When do you get the chance to get really better, especially with two lively kids around that keep insisting on having yet more school holidays, a house to look after (sort of) and it`s rush season at the allotment?