January Resurrection: Starsky

For the UFO Resurrection Challenge 2007, my first resurrected UFO was an easy choice: Starsky. Good 'ol Starsky got officially bagged up and stowed away some time late this summer. It had become increasingly difficult to finish the sleeves for two reasons: 1) I was knitting them two at a time and they had become wide and long and all around mind numbing; and 2) I wouldn't be able to wear the sweater for months even if I finished it. So, away it went. It was just better this way.

However, what I realized about making a sweater this way was that it is like a little gift when you pull it back out. It had been tucked away for so long, I more or less forgot about it. So, when I took out the back, front left and most of both sleeves, it felt as if I get a whole sweater while only knitting a couple sleeve caps, a front and (all be it very big) collar.

So how did Starsky fair this 6 month break? Fortunately, I jotted down the needle size I was using on the pattern before I bagged up all the components, because the needle size written on that pattern was not what I THOUGHT I had been using. (My brain does this fun little trick to me with increased frequency it seems and really can no longer be trusted.) This would have been fairly disastrous as I the sleeve caps and right front panel would have been knit at a much tighter gauge.

However, what I didn't do, was make lots of good notes as to WHY I was knitting with that particular needle size. It is certainly not what I would normally be knitting with given the recommended needle size for the pattern and my own knitting style. So, really all I can do is assume I didn't make a mistake when I started and that there was a good reason for the needle choice. So I learned yet ANOTHER good knitting lesson: make more notes, since I guess you never really know when you will finish any given project despite all the best intensions. (Although one of my goals this year is really to reduce this phenomena entirely.)

Another "fun" thing that happened as a result of the hiatus was this cute little line across both sleeves right before the sleeve caps started:

Can you tell which row spent the last six months on a stitch holder? I'm not super concerned as I know that these stitches will work themselves back to normal after washing and wearing, but for now they make for a nice design feature don't you think?

And as you can tell in the above photo, those partially complete sleeves have now been finished and I am working on the right front panel now. I really am looking forward to blocking everything and starting the collar. I've decided that I am not going to make my Starsky with the tie. Now, I swear I didn't make this decision because I didn't feel like knitting that bloody thing. It really is a personal preference for me. See it turns out that (especially on my long torso) the sweater won't really be very long on me. It's more normal sweater length then sweater jacket length and in order to place the ties in a workable place on the sweater, the tie would literally end up not all that far below my boobles. This I assure you, would not be a good look for me.

Instead of the tie, I plan to add toggle closures to one side of the shawl collar so that the sides will overlap like a peacoat but without the buttons. I think it will be cool and be a bit more appropriate to the fit this sweater will have on me. The fact that I don't have to knit the tie is icing on the cake...really, really good icing...Nonnahs' buttercream icing.