Liesl II, Redux

Earlier this year I completed my second Liesl. It was my second attempt to make one for myself (the first one was too small, and ended up with my Sister-in-Law, Ella) and I was determined to get it right this time.

And unfortunately, experienced multiple fails:

1. The ball bands on each skein said they were from the same dye lot. They weren't. I didn't discover that one of the skeins was a completely different color until I had finished the body of the sweater and went back up to do the arms. otherwise, I would have alternated skeins.
2. One of the sleeves was totally screwed up anyway. I'd some how managed to mess up a simple feather and fan pattern. Fixing it would have involved ripping back the entire sweater to the armpits, and I really didn't want to do that. I was already depressed about the color problem.
3. I made it to fit a 46-inch bust. Because the first one I made, at 36 inches, was too small even though I am a 36-inch bust kinda gal (yay! now you know how big my boobs are. Now go knit me a sweater. Heh). Let's just say that the sweater was a wee bit too big. As in baggy. As in, made me look like I had a 46-inch bust when I was wearing it, because it was so big.

Due to all the problems mentioned above, and the fact that it was my second fail on this sweater (which I REALLY REALLY WANT by the way), I was a little depressed. Then I had a total fail on another Ysolda pattern (Damnson) and kind of decided that I would back away from the Ysolda stuff for a while. Obviously her stuff, for whatever reason, was not jibing with my mental state. Or something. Star crossed knitters?

Regardless, this poor sweater languished at the bottom of my closet for a while, until Ella came over yesterday afternoon. We were looking through my Ravelry projects (she's very supportive of my knitting. I'm guessing its because I knit her stuff) and she wanted to know about the Liesl II. She'd never seen me wearing it, and was curious.

In a fit of guilt, I'd purchased buttons for the thing this weekend at the City Quilter, thinking I would finish it and send it off to my mother, or charity, or something.

At Ella's prodding, I dug it out from its pile in the closet (where I discovered the cat had been using it as a bed) and tried it on for Ella. It. Did. Not. Work. At ALL. I mentioned that Bruce hated the thing and said it looked rather matronly on me.

Ella tried it on. She was swamped in it. However, when she let her hands fall away from the front of the sweater, it fell away from her chest in a really cute way, so I started poking and prodding at it, gathering it with my hands, and tugging it around her (what can I say, I was a seamstress first. Have to get the fit right, always).

It looked awesome. I sewed the buttons on it to tack down the sweater where I wanted it tacked down, and voila:



A cute sweater was born.

Thank you Ella, for modeling. Incidentally, yesterday was the one year anniversary of Ella's liver transplant. She looks good, no?

Now, if only I could make myself a damn Liesl. Maybe I'm a one Liesl per year kinda girl. Maybe I should wait until next year to make another one.