I honestly can’t say I enjoyed knitting this piece but I also can’t say I didn’t. It was challenging but not difficult. It’s all just knitting and purling after all.

What got me were the uneven stitches that come with intarsia. I think that creatives are often prone to perfectionism. So all these oversized stitches drove me a bit bonkers.

I also need to mention the zillion yarn tails that needed to be woven in. I swear I spent more time trying to tidy up the back of the work than I did knitting the damn jacket.

Then, like a big dummy, I decided I would sew in a liner to hide all the grossness on the inside. I didn’t take into account that the liner would affect the elasticity of the overall garment. So when I tried it on, the sleeves didn’t sit right and there was no fixing it… unless I removed the lining.

So the 10+ hours I spent sewing in the linings by hand was partially a waste of time. I left it on the back and two fronts though. But if Sandy tries it on and it sits oddly, we’ll just remove the linings on all the pieces and he’ll just have to look at the mess when he wears it.

I’m not really sure why someone would choose to make more than one intarsia sweater! Haha. My friend Michelle and I were chatting about this on Tuesday. These Mary Maxim sweaters were huge when we were kids. We grew up laughing at how cheesy some of them were (naturally, we thought we were too cool for them). But they were everywhere in all there acrylic glory!!

I’m happy for Mary Maxim though. They must be laughing to the bank these days thanks to Ryan Gosling and the costume designers from Project Hail Mary.

If you’re on the Tube and you want to know a bit more about what I’ve been up to, here is my newest episode:

Cheers!

When you’re not enjoying a project and feel like it’s “work”, you don’t rush to sit at the end of the day to work on it.

I’m far from excited about working on this jacket at all the times of day.

However, I can’t say I hate it because it’s still knitting; I’m still making something from nothing. But the dread I feel about weaving in all the ends is very real.

I actually went on Ravelry the other day to check out all the projects. There are so many! I’m honestly shocked that so many people undertook this. (I bet Mary Maxim is pretty pumped at the influx of business.). I’ve been reading the comments and have to laugh – so many knitters feel the same about this intarsia jacket.

I’m also trying to figure out how to tell another friend that I really, really don’t want to knit a second one of these. Do I have that awkward conversation now, or do I stay quiet and hope he forgets he ever asked?

If you missed the first post, you can read it here.

The Learning Curve

After ripping and re-knitting a few times, (and finally sitting down with this Youtube tutorial), I think I’m starting to get the hang of this intarsia thing.

I think.

This photo is why I got so frustrated! How is this so hard??! I didn’t take a photo of my fist attempt because, like I mentioned in my first post, it was just too gross.

Improvements

Staying Motivated

I’m finding it challenging to stay motivated to work on this project. When you’re not in love what you’re working on, it’s easy to get distracted by new ideas or projects.

Will Blocking Fix My Uneven Stitches?

It’s got a lot of wonky-ness and I’m praying hard that they will even out in blocking.

At the end of the day, it’s far from perfect but it looks like a fox. I’m calling that a WIN.

Knitting and Audiobooks

Books on audio and handcrafts are like PB&J, aren’t they?

Have you read/listened to anything good lately? I’ll take recommendations in the comments.

Here are a few books I recently finished and loved:

Have a fantastic couple of weeks and I’ll see you back here with (I hope) a finished back and the start of some front panels!