It’s done! And it now occurs to me that I never really explained what it was for other than that it was for school. I’m taking Literature and Film and we predominately are looking at adaptations. Since the course critiques and discusses adaptations, my Prof. said it was good for us to try it for ourselves and see what it is like. We have to adapt one of the texts that we have read in the course. We are allowed to use whatever medium we want to do the project and I went with knitting. Someone baked a layer cake as their adaptation one year so I don’t think my sweater is too crazy. We also have to write an essay that accompanies our piece that explains what we did and says a little something about adaptation.
Anyways, it’s pretty much done. I still have to weave in the blue ends on the sleeves and seams, but I wanted to get some pictures while there was light. I think I’m going to end up turning it in as is. I’m a bit afraid to block it because it has been so damp that I’m worried that it won’t be completely dry by Monday morning when it is due. I’d rather have some wonky stitches than turn in something damp. I don’t think anyone who is marking it will really notice. I also am skipping a detail that I wanted to add because of time. I had wanted to embroider “eat” on all the little cakes, but I haven’t started the essay portion so I don’t think it the embroidery is going to happen. Then there’s the fact that I have zero embroidery skills… It probably would look pretty terrible.
If I did it again there are a ton of things that I would change. I’d use less positive ease. I’d move the intarsia down a few inches so it looked a bit more balanced. I’d make Alice’s skirt a different shade of blue so it doesn’t look like her legs just magically appear out of a weird squiggly white line. If I had a ton of time to do this again, I’d dye my own colors so I could get her legs right. I’d also use a finer weight yarn so I could make the intarsia more refined.
It’s not my favorite project ever, but it didn’t turn out completely ugly either. I think that if I wasn’t working on a deadline I would like it better. There is something about deadline knitting that makes me hate whatever I’m working on towards the end.
ETA: I forgot to talk about the yarn! I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes on 5mm needles. Knit Picks was really the only way I could do this project. I looked into using Cascade 220 because they have a nice range of colors, but the cost of buying 220 yards of every single color I needed (around $150) made the project go out of my price range. Since Knit Picks Wool of the Andes comes in 110 yard balls (and because it was Knit Picks), it was much cheaper (under $70) and I have a lot less excess yarn leftover. It’s not the softest yarn in the world and I’m not confident that it will wear amazingly, but it was pleasant to work with. In case you wear wondering, I had to plan ahead and coordinate my order with my Christmas break so it got to my parents’ house in California at the same time I did. I brought it back to England with me.
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