Year of Projects update - 4th November

A thought occurred to me the other day, that if I didn't actually do something about it, my Cherry Wrap would remain in pieces, unfinished, in my WIP basket until the day I died.

There are five pieces in total, the sleeves are missing from this picture.

The main barrier to my being bothered to block and seam the damn thing has been my increasing uncertainty over whether or not it would be worth it in the end. Was I actually going to like the finished project? Would I wear it? I found myself searching the Ravelry database for patterns that use 1,700 yards of DK weight yarn, looking for alternatives for this lovely dark red merino.

Then a solution presented itself. When I sew costumes, I pin the pieces together before sewing to make sure it's right. Why not do the same for my knits?

I had to figure out how to assemble the cardigan, as the instructions included in the pattern are not very helpful at all.

As soon as I picked it up to move it, pins started sliding out of the yarn and by the time I got it on the dummy both sleeves had started to fall off. Trying to actually put it on was almost a complete disaster, but I managed to get away without stabbing myself with any of the pins.

After some consideration, there was really only one course of action left to take.

Yes, this project headed for the frog pond. It's been over a year since I started working on this, and it took me an age to actually complete the three body panels, and the sleeves were finished on the 1st April this year. Which means it's been sat in my WIP basket for six months, completely untouched!

I decided to re-wind the yarn direct from the crocheted pieces, to prevent excessive tangling. I put something interesting on the telly, and wore my arms out ripping back stitches, spinning the swift and keeping the yarn at the right tension.

Once the panel was completely unravelled, I tied up the hanks to keep them from falling apart and lifted them from the swift.

Before I re-use the yarn I will of course need to soak it to get those kinks out. But I can't be bothered to do that now, so I've just twisted the yarn up into big fat squishy skeins to go back on the shelves.

Each back panel used three balls of yarn, so this is a big 150g skein

5 skeins in total, one for each piece.

I don't think I will be adding this yarn to my YoP list this year, so it will be a project for next year to knit this up into something wearable. I'm thinking a cardigan still, but I will keep searching Ravelry until inspiration hits.