Do As I Say, Not As I Do

This little, "quick" Snowflake sweater has taught me a few lessons:

Lesson 1: Follow your intuition. It knows all. The whole time I was knitting the top of the front I kept thinking "wow this looks long". I even put it up to me and thought it was too long. But I kept on knitting because it didn't match the measurement I scribbled on the notepad a few weeks back. Of course, I should have listened to that little voice and saved myself a night of ripping and reknitting.

Lesson 2: Fair Isle is always less stretchy. No, just because Nadia isn't the typical smooth and even FI yarn does not mean it will behave in a way completely unlike every other yarn you've ever used. I learned this lesson on Cheesylove and even remarked about how much tighter the edge of the sleeve is on this sweater (where the snowflake/leaf is). Yet I did nothing about it when knitting the front! The result? An edge that pulls in about 1-1/2 inches on each side. I'll be knitting a gusset to insert along the edges where the FI band is.

Lesson 3: If you frog a neckline and re-use the yarn thinking you'll have the perfect length because you're reknitting the same instrucitons over the same number of stitches and rows you will run out of yarn. On the final cast off row.

Lesson 4: Nothing beats the satisfaction of looking at a piece you knitted and knowing that you didn't take the shortcut and you did it the right way. Nothing.