Sunday, February 18, 2007

White Lies from the Knitter's Husband

I know how I teased you with a little picture of Mr. S's sweater, and promised a weekend photo-shoot, but unfortunately I cannot deliver. The sweater needs more attention. The collar is not right.

Before he tried it on Valentines Day morning, I made sure he understood that the reason the ends had not been woven was to make it a little easier to make changes. If the sleeves needed lengthening, or if the fit wasn't right, I could change it. Really.

When he put it on, it was obvious with the amount of shoulder-shrugging and collar-tugging and neck over-extension that the collar was not comfortable. Remember, Mr. S is not a sweater-guy. Mr. S does not wear turtlenecks or anything that might the least bit constricting around the neck.

I asked him if the collar was uncomfortable. He continued to pull, yank, and adjust, and assured me that it must be the t-shirt he was wearing under the sweater.

He blamed the t-shirt.

Knitters know that there is nothing quite so simple as adjusting a collar, and it is a common thing to modify a neckline. Changing a neck to make a sweater more comfortable is an easy fix, with a minimum of ripping and tooth-gnashing. But Mr. S did not know that, so he blamed the t-shirt, instead of acknowledging that the sweater cut uncomfortably across the base of his neck and returning his sweater for further attention.


Thank you, my Mr S, for blaming the t-shirt. It's clearly the collar that is the problem.


So the collar is going back to the drawing board. A half-assed effort to short-row the back and lower the front a bit did not work, so additional experimentation is necessary.

I am open to suggestion, readers.

9 comments:

Ann said...

That is so nice that you get the polite, respectful white lies of Mr. S. Rather than the blunt honesty of the BackBou. I could use some of the "it's the t-shirt" remarks ...

Rip it back and reknit to create more scoop in the front and back?

LaurieM said...

I think for Mr. S, you'd better the scoop neck. For anyone else, you might get a way with a wider opening. A quick Google search shows that most boat neck sweaters are for women these days.

Carol said...

I agree with Ann, rip back and bind off the center front stitches and do the old "work both sides at the same time with two balls of yarn" thing-y. Let him show his manly Adam's apple with pride for all to see!

It's still a lovely sweater...

Mintyfresh said...

The other suggestions seem like a good way to go. Can't wait to see it all finished up. Sweet hubby to try to make it work! Don't they know that we really just want it to be perfect, we're ok with revisions :)

Anonymous said...

I wish I could help, but I cannot so I will simply say that it was sweet of him to try and not make more work for you.

Anonymous said...

That is too sweet of your hubby! Don't know enough to give you suggestions but I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.

carrie said...

very nice of the husband! um, can you do a crew neck of some kind? hmm.

Ashley said...

Aww--how sweet of Mr. S. I'd eighteenth (or whatever we're up to at this point) the scooped neck (just a little, not too much) with the two balls of yarn.

knittingphilistine said...

You've got yourself a good man. Good luck with fixing the neck; I have no sage advice, since I am hardly a knitting sage.