Measure twice, knit once

As I sit here re-knitting the yoke of my Cobblestone sweater, it finally dawned on me what I did wrong. In the pattern, the sleeve measurement didn't seem long enough. This is usually a common thing for me because I have long arms, and when buying long sleeved shirts or sweaters, I usually have to go to a big & tall men's store. After measuring 3 long sleeved shirts, I came to the conclusion that the sleeves needed to be 3 inches longer. I know! That's quite a bit, but hey, I measured! So of course I knitted the extra long sleeves, attached them to the body, and started knitting the yoke. I was a little more than 3/4 of the way finished with the yoke when I decided to try it on. The sleeves are way too long! How can this be?! Rip, rip, rip the yoke, rip the sleeves back 2 1/2 inches, reattach to body, begin knitting yoke again. Which brings me to today.

And then it dawns on me......

When I measured my pre existing sweaters, I laid them out flat and measured them from the underarm to the cuff. As I was knitting my sleeves, I measured across the top of the sleeve for length. Now anyone who's ever knit a sleeve knows that you decrease along the underarm toward the cuff, or increase if you're knitting from the cuff up. When you lay the finished sleeve out flat you've created somewhat of a triangle. (it would be a triangle if you continued decreasing the cuff til you had only one stitch, but it would be kind of hard to get your hand through...... anyway, you know what I mean)

Now my mind wanders back to my 10th grade geometry class when I say "Why do I have to learn this crap?! I'm never going to use it again!"

WRONG!

The underarm side of the sleeve would be the hypotenuse side of the triangle, and we all know that side is longer. I think there was some sort of formula to figure it out, but I'm sure I'll never have to use that again. (hey, that's what the internet is for, right?)

So I'm sitting here re-knitting the yoke of Cobblestone, and the only thing I can think about is the fact that It probably won't even fit me come winter, because I'm losing so much weight with Weight Watcher's . (16.2 lbs. in 5 weeks) I'm going to have to start something new and thinner, or I'll have nothing to wear to SAFF! (maybe it won't take me as long, since it will be a few sizes smaller)

Mach 1 update
According to UPS tracking numbers, the wheels will arrive next Tuesday. Can I tell you how excited I am? I will have my wheel for spinning guild next Saturday! Hey, do you spinners name your wheels? I was sure I heard some of you calling them by name. I have a couple picked out.

How about Ernst?


You know! After Ernst Mach, Austrian philosopher and physicist who came up with the concept of faster than sound travel.
I don't know. Even though he looks like there might have been a spinning wheel in the house, not such a pleasant or easy name to pronounce.
(Ernst, Ernst, Ernst.......)

My other choice, and so far my favorite is Chuck.



After Chuck Yeager, the first man to travel at Mach 1, and a fellow West Virginian, I might add. Of course I could also go with Glamorous Glennis, the name of the Bell X-1 plane that actually broke Mach 1. Chuck named the plane after his wife. Maybe I'll just go with Chuck. I kind of like it.

OH, OH, OH, Before I forget. I was gifted by my wonderful friend Shirley Robb with a HUGE bag of the most beautiful dark chocolate brown ALPACA fleece I have ever seen! This stuff is right of the animal, so I'm going to have to figure out how to process it, and comb or card it, but I am up for the task. (I've actually been looking at drum carders too!) Thank you SO much Shirley!