Reincarnation

I've been wondering how to write this post, but I haven't come up with a decent answer. So, let me get some things out of the way:

• This is a knitting post, as you'd expect from me. I'd love to chat with you about bodily reincarnation, but this is not that time.
• This story has a tragic component, but it ends up okay. Stick with me.

Remember the Reds Trolley Dodger? I knit that sweater in August and September and loved it with my whole heart.

On December 2, I took a vacation day so I could drive 2 hours to attend a class with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It is the class I most want to take. The ultimate class. With the ultimate instructor. At a yarn shop filled to the brim with yarn I wanted to buy. This was going to be an awesome day off.

When the alarm went off that morning, I felt sick. I showered, threw up, headed back to bed, got up because I CANNOT MISS THIS CLASS, got dizzy, went back to bed, got up, got dizzy, went back to bed...

This happened for awhile.

Then I got into my car and pointed it north. In about 10 minutes, I knew I had clearly made a mistake. I got off the interstate, threw up while driving which wasn't nearly as terrifying as I had always imagined it to be, got home, and Andrew helped me extricate myself from the unpleasant situation.

Naturally, I put all of my clothes, including the Reds Trolley Dodger, into the washer. I put it on cold and hoped for the best. There was no other alternative.

Everyone knows where this is headed. The sweater, regardless of cold water, felted a bit. It's too small.

Okay, tragedy over. Here's the good part: I made another one.

(This picture is what happens when you ask a coworker to take pictures for you and she insists you strike a silly pose.)

Reds Trolley Dodger 2.0 (mine ravelled here),

knit in Berroco Vintage 

Since I was reknitting it, I made some changes. First, I used a worsted weight yarn instead of dk. That meant I had to do some math with the gauge swatch, and I followed the instructions for a smaller size to get the actual size I wanted.

I used yarn that had some acrylic in it as well as wool and nylon and was classified as machine washable. I do not plan on testing that, but I didn't plan on machine washing the first one either...

I also knit in the Reds logo using stranded knitting. On the first sweater, I tried putting the logo on using duplicate stitch. I'm never pleased with how my duplicate stitch looks. I ended up taking it out and putting on a Cincinnati Reds patch on the first sweater, but a) that patch didn't want to stay ironed on, and b) I did not want to try the patch on a sweater containing acrylic. I might not have been able to handle it if the second sweater melted where I tried to add an iron-on patch.

I'm much happier with the way the logo turned out on this one.

So, let's choose to see this as glass half full. I like to knit, so it's fine to have to redo something, even if it's a big something like a sweater. I bought the yarn on sale. I fixed a couple things that bugged me about the first try.

And I have a great story to tell if ever I need to make a knitter gasp in horror. All I have to do is make sure I use the words "felted" and "sweater" in the same sentence and then wait for the reaction.