Hello, friends, I am steeling myself to do something brave: I am going to figure out bust darts. Months and months ago in a knitting post I showed you an embryonic sweater back.
Frog it, you told me; it's not worth saving. But I did not listen.
I have found my feet in the pattern, which was a bit of an undertaking. I'm using Ann Budd's book of top-down sweaters. It has the advantage of being extremely versatile. Choose your own gauge, choose your preferred sweater style, and you're off to the races. This versatility has a cost, though, which is that following a sweater pattern requires you to wade through pages and pages of tables. And if you should happen to set your nascent sweater aside for a year or three -- well, go with God, my friend.
Anyway, I figured out which end was up and worked my way to the front of the sweater, whereupon I hit a snag. It's a fine-gauge close-fitting cardigan, and I'd like to be able to wear it open or closed. I think I'm going to add bust darts, which I have never done before.
I've done plenty of shaping in the bustular region over the years, but never anything as tailored as a dart. Most knitting patterns just say, here, add some fabric at the sides and it will probably work out. It feels a little daunting to tackle something much more specific: add x amount of fabric, at this precise location. And it feels even more daunting to do it for a garment that I want to be able to wear in various stages of buttoned-ness.
It seems likely that I will not get it quite right on the first try, which will mean ripping and re-knitting at 6 stitches to the inch. And it also seems likely that a dart that looks good when the sweater is buttoned will seem sadly misplaced in an unbuttoned cardigan, as if I have inserted a weird little pocket for a snack or a hamster or what have you.
HOWEVER, I have concluded based on years of observation that one does not generally learn to do difficult new things by sighing defeatedly while telling oneself it sounds too hard. I found a tutorial; it has a worksheet. I'll report back.
(Tomorrow I am sending out new year's/Epiphany cards for the first time in five years, and the accompanying letter mentions this blog. I always feel a bit of uncertainty about including the link, and I tell myself I should write a few friendly appealing posts about funny kid doings or pleasant recipes. But instead I have just written a whole post about clothing modifications to accommodate breasts. The Light & Momentary blog, keeping it weird since 2006.)
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