Finished the Back - Twice

Have you ever tried to decrease in Blackberry stitch? It's all my own fault, as usual. The pattern warns you to be careful! What you are supposed to do is to make sure that if you cast off three, then you cast on three to keep the stitch count even. If you don't have room to complete the pattern, then you knit reverse stocking stitch. Why didn't I read those instructions BEFORE I merrily knit the whole back? I thought I'd finished, held the back next to the arms to check the length and found they were all wrong. I had to frog back to the point where the Blackberry stitch is taken into the raglan. It's the right size now, but it's still a still a mess. I can see a lumpy bit right down the bottom of the back where I got the dreaded Blackberry stitch wrong, and the blackberries are in different places where they have been taken into the raglan.

I wish, wish, wish that I'd knit all the pieces and then knit the raglans on one needle, but I've never done that before and I funked it rather.

I am so off this garment! I don't like the yarn. I don't like my tatty knitting and I wish I'd never started it - or at least that this was a test and not supposed to be the real one. I get depressed because I have a vision of how beautiful knitting can be, and I get stuck on these horrid scruffy failures. I'd like to make another one in beautiful natural yarn. The second time around I'd know all the things I didn't know when I charged into this one, and it would be nicely knit - in theory. Oh well. I don't want one of these for myself. I wouldn't wear a jacket that only had one button. I'm sure it would flap open and be cold, so it will stay a theory.

It is however, my very first textured garment! I started the front last night. I'm actually impressed with how quickly it's knitting up. When I made my first attempt at Aran knitting, I spent about six weeks making a four inch tension square and decided it was far too slow to try for real.

I have seen a wonderful man's sweater: Durrow by Jodie Green. If DH likes it, then I'll make him one in natural yarn.