Oh Marius... Why do you hate me so?

I try to keep my posts positive, yet this will contain a small amount of frustration.
Sometime before Christmas, Mr Pinhouse uttered a request for a traditional Marius sweater.

Marius Eriksen, after whom the sweater is named, sporting reversed colored sweater.
Read some about him here.
Most used color scheme on the right.

Since 1953, this sweater has been in every Norwegians heart, and closet. It is the epitome of the Norwegian spirit and love of the great outdoors. Our majestic snow covered mountains, in which we have skied, our long fjords that has fed us through the generations, our deep forests that provided timber for our homes. An embodiment of this nation that once was a small, poor country of farmers. Farmers, that within themselves carried the pride, skill and will, to build a great nation, that today is one of the worlds richest. (insert National anthem of Norway.)

Photo by Per Eide
source

So you see, I took pride in making this sweater for him. It is said to have been a tradition for girls/young women to knit, and give this to their sweetheart, so I went on to continue this tradition.

I cast on December 23rd, just two days after finishing my cable cardigan. I chose a mens size medium, based on measurements of my "client", knitted a swatch even. I spent the next nine days knitting up the whole body in the round, and cast off at the neck. It then hit me that the sweater looked small. In fact it was too small even for me, and I had to frog the whole thing.

I counted my stitches over 4", did some calculations, and decided I had to knit the XL size from the pattern and went at it again. Mr Pinhouse is a slender dude, and not that much bigger than me, so I figured this would be plenty big on him. The knitting went ok, although a bit lacking in the enthuze-department. I did inevitably, make an error on one of the sleeves, and had to frog half of it and re-knit. Tuesday the 4th of February, I finished the last piece.

I steeked the body, which was utterly terrifying. I've always cast off for arm openings, but granted; it is easier to knit the body in the round the whole way up, and slice it up after. The design is quite boxy, and the sleeves (also knitted in the round) are fairly wide, and set in at a right angle. The shoulder seam and the sleeve is meant to meet up below the shoulder, and it was here I started to get that panicky feeling. I could see that the the arm wasn't particularly wide, and the "point of in-set" was rather close to the body and wasn't going to hang low, off the shoulder. Uh-oh.

Our King Harald V, as a young Crown Prince and student at Oxford in 1960.
Maybe a bit on the big side, but here you can see the sleeves
set in low on the shoulder. (source)

I shamefully handed it to Mr P to try on, and could instantly see it was not fitting. Too small on top. Too tight around the armpit area, and over the back. Blah....I was miffed.
I mean; how on earth could this happen?? I used the recommended yarn, the same needles. I measured and calculated. I knitted it twice. It is a mens XL for Pete's sake!! I have seen extra large men, and believe me; Mr P ain't it... And no way would those men get into my sweater.

So, to wrap this up on a realistic note; Mr P is not getting his patriotic sweater (this week, anyway). Luckily, I can wear it without looking ridiculous, so it is not a total waste. I cannot help but feel like a small failure (even though I totally blame the pattern. Heh!). I really wanted to give him a sweater. I am considering trying again (in secret), but I must say it is not very tempting. If I do, I will not use the sizing in the pattern. I will have to come up with my own measurements and amount of stitches. The pattern repeat for the borders/color-work are easy to adjust and incorporate into whatever size, so if I can only crack the size code, I'll be fine.

Someone suggested I go up a needle size. But then I have no idea just how much bigger it will get, and I will not risk getting it wrong again. Besides, I like how the fabric looks and feels with 3.5mm needles and I fear knitting with size 4mm will make it to loose. I've never felt my knitting was especially tight, but obviously it is supposed to be much looser. The gauge in the pattern says 22 stitches over 4". I've got 26. Go figure.

Did you ever promise to make something for someone, that ended up all wrong? How did it make you feel? And what did you do about it?

Paging all nurses!

After a rather depressing weekend of UFO searching last week, I decided to admit myself into the Pinhouse FWYS-programme (Finish What You Start). Otherwise known as the Blogger Mental Hospital.  Meaning I had to wrestle myself into picking 1 -one- item from a UFO-pile, and not touch anything else craft related until said item was finished.

Reason? I am a notorious non-finisher. I tend to throw myself at new projects with great enthusiasm, get it almost done, and then distract myself with something new and totally lose interest in what I was working on. This just has to stop! It is not very satisfying having nothing to show for all the time I do spend crafting, not to mention those pesky UFO's mocking me from every closet of my house.

SO! Cheered on by my lovely "nurses" on the previous post (you know who you are!),
I am now proud to say: I FINISHED SOMETHING! (Thanks, ladies)

My smug-face :)

Ta-Dah!!!

This lovely knitted sweater is a project I started almost three years ago, and is from a Norwegian knitting book written by Tine Solheim, called "Maskeball". It was published in 2009, so not vintage, but the pattern is kind of retro with those traditional roses and the "fleas" all over. It is quite typical Norwegian, but with a twist, color wise.

The body is knit on the round, and the sleeves and collar knitted separately. The ribbing is made with a sort of cable technique, so it looks twisted. It is a lot more interesting than regular ribbing, but hellishly slow to knit!

Twisted ribbing. Sloooooow :P

I did struggle with setting in the sleeves, because of so much ease in the sleeve heads. But after some stitching and unpicking, I got a result I can live with. The sweater is rather fitted, so any wrinkle would be stretched out some, luckily.

My pressing technique needs attention :/

The neckline is a bit special, and I think if I were to knit this again (which I most likely won't) I would lengthen the back piece just a little so that the collar would lie better. It sort of pulls to the back a little. I would also close the "border edge" at the shoulder a couple of inches, it gapes rather oddly now. Another thing I might change is the location of where ribbing ends. When I started this sweater, I had yet to learn about the natural waist. I find now, that things that hit the natural waist, looks so much better than things hitting the "modern" waist. The ribbing wants to find my waist (good luck...), and rides up, creating excess sweater around the waist, which is less flattering.

The "a bit too long"-bit.

ANYWAYZZ! The whole idea with this exercise was to finish, and I am very relieved that I did. I felt really good to fasten the last thread, and folding a sweater (!) neatly together (instead of cramming a bunch of random pieces in a bag and hide them). It would be lying to claim I 100% enjoyed the process. It was hard to take it up again, I constantly laid it down and wandered towards the sewing machine. I tell you , that thing is like a drug, not to mention my fabric- and pattern stash.... But I was good.
All in all, I am happy with the sweater, and I think it is a nice usable piece for the upcoming winter!