Aphrodite Jumper - Gone Wrong

Since learning to knit and crochet, I have been looking forward to making something that i could wear that wasn't an accessory. Also with the cold weather at the moment, and the over efficient air conditioning in our office, I wanted to make a jumper or cardigan.

As i was looking through patterns on the net, i found this pattern that i loved the look of.

http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/aphrodite/aphrodite.html

I knew i wouldn't buy the yarn that it suggested- if i could get it in the UK it would cost over £45 for the amount the suggested. Also being my first time and knowing my past efforts at sewing, i thought that i might screw it up and be a big waste of money.

So i thought i would just give it a try in some cheap acrylic wool i found. - This stuff was £1 per 100g from Buyology - James C Brett - Top Value Double Knitting. Actually, its the best quality cheap yarn i have found to date. It feels quite soft and was much nicer to work with than the other cheap yarns i have bought. I bought it to make more hats and stuff, but I thought i would give it a try for this project.

I followed the pattern, and made up both sides and seamed them together as instructed.

Here is one side -

It looks quite nice - but once the two sides were seamed together, the ruffly bottom was so large - It just looked wrong.

I didn't really know what to do, as the ruffly bit was at the bottom and i had knitted so much after this - i thought i was going to have to undo it all or throw it in the bin.

Thankfully, i decided to undo where i had joined to the center band, and one by one undo the stitches and put the center band on to circular needles.

I then decided that this wasn't the wool for something so fancy, and it didn't really work. I'm sure the yarn they suggested would have hung better and therefore looked better, but this yarn was not suited. So i thought i would just go plain - i knitted from the bust down to the waist on circulars and switching to a rib in the contrasting colour to finish off.

All in all a learning project really for me. I probably wont have the guts to wear it, but i learned loads about reading patterns and what things work and don't with this yarn.

In the end I used less than 100g of the Turquoise and i think just over 100g of the lime. I had spare wool left over after ripping out the bottom of the jumper.

With some of the bits of yarn left over i made a crochet cuff as you can see in one of the photos.