The cursed sweater from Dimension X

A couple of weekends ago, I headed over to Greencastle Wool Show with a friend. It was my first visit to this show, and I was excited to check it out.

Trying to keep up with my resolution to only buy yarn that I have definite plans for, I made a list of things I wanted to make including yarn weights and yardage. I was primarily going to look for yarn with lots of linen or cotton content, as I had a couple of summer-type sweaters in mind for myself.

Once there, I realized there was almost no linen or cotton stuff on offer, so I shifted plans. Which basically meant: no plan.

I ended up buying some Halloween stripes from my lovely friend Heather at BaH Yarns (let’s face it, there is always room for her yarn in my closet!). I fell head over heels in love with this one-of-a-kind worsted weight yarn from Indigo Guinea (that I will hopefully stripe with a solid, I guess? No plan, remember). And I pretty much lost my mind in the Laughing Cat Fibers yarn booth. First of all, she had a cat theme and her whole booth vibe was awesome (don’t ban books, my body/my choice buttons, that kind of thing). Second of all, she had a bin of yarn labeled with Bob Ross pictures that said “no mistakes, only happy accidents”). I fell in love with a purple/pink/sparkly Bob Ross number that, of course, there was only one of. That can be a headband, right? :-) Ohh, and I needed these brightly colored cat stitch markers she had, too.

Laughing Cat Fibers (left 3 skeins), Indigo Guinea, and BaH Yarns.

But what really caught my eye was this incredibly bright neon yarn that glows under black light. Am I ever near black light? No. But it is super bright even without one and absolutely beautiful. I was going to buy just one skein. She mentioned that someone had made a sweater out of it and showed me a picture. And suddenly, the only other skein of that yarn was also in my bag.

I came home and immediately started searching Ravelry for the perfect sweater. It had to use low yardage since I only had two skeins. It had to be kind of funky and able to handle an incredibly neon yarn. I had also decided that this was going to be my roller skating sweater, because the rink is the only place I could think of that I ever encounter black lights, so it had to be breathable.

The only choice based on this criteria was Mischief Maker.

I excitedly cast on. I wanted this sweater to be finished, and I wanted to wear it immediately, so I worked on it a lot. I even learned a new cast-on technique for it. A few rows in, I realized that I had committed a knitting sin. I had twisted when joining in the round! I mourned this for about half a day, and then ripped it out. Still brimming with enthusiasm, I cast on again. I decided it was really for the best - I had gotten nervous I had gone for too much ease, and the opportunity to cast on a smaller size was welcome.

This sunshine-y attitude went down the drain when as soon as I got to the lace pattern (row 4!), I realized I was off a stitch. Then, every row after, I had either one too many stitches or one too few. I figured it wouldn’t show in such open stitches, and corrected it, but no matter how many times I “corrected,” it was still wrong. I kept going for a few more rows, but never really fixed anything.

Now I was mad. I ripped the whole thing out again. I cast on again. It is a tribute to the Laughing Cat yarn that it still looked great, even after another riiiiiiiip. I got through the first set of lace rows and everything was working out. I had made it to the other side! I was finally knitting some yarn that I hadn’t ripped out yet!

Then, I noticed that there was a funny looking spot down below. Surely, nothing could really be wrong. The numbers were still right. But that was not to be. I realized that what actually happened was that I had twisted the whole thing after about the 7th row or so. I twisted it AFTER I was well into the pattern! I have been knitting for more than 20 years at this point, and I’m pretty sure I have NEVER done that before. So I carefully tinked a few rows, undid the random twist, and went back to knitting.

And so, here I am. With what feels like thousands of rows between me and my finished sweater grooving together at the roller rink.

And the Dimension X part? Well, we’ve been watching a lot of 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles around here lately. Shredder and Krang launch relatively straightforward evil plans that they botch due to stupidity, and that’s pretty much how I feel about this sweater. Seems easy, and my incompetence is messing it up. I can’t even blame it on turtles. Wish me luck.