Posy Progress

First ball of yarn is all used up. If the pattern's take on yarn requirements is to be believed, I am something like 1/6 done with the knitting. (Maybe 1/7 done, if you count the finishing?) Haven't had to rip out more than, say, 10 rows. Thankfully, I have reached the point where I have an intimate understanding of the role each stitch plays in the lace pattern.

I don't have any real clue whether this will fit in the end.

Because I have a "short waist."

What is a "short waist?" Basically, this means I'm just a little bit smooshed in the middle.

To be more precise: The distance between my waist and my, um, chest, is shorter by a good inch or two than the standard/average/whatever that garment designers expect for a female of my size. (Yes. If it wasn't clear before, I am female. Can I get a "shame, really"?) Which means that tops that have high or empire waists or that flare out considerably near the bottom fit me nicely. And everything else gets just a little scrunched up at my waist, since the shaping on everything else just doesn't happen in the right place.

Posy does not have a high waist.

Nor does it flare out at the bottom.

A problem with three possible solutions. (Four, if you count "choose another pattern" as an option. I don't.)

One is to just follow the pattern for what should be my size and make a garment I almost-for-certain know is not going to fit right. (Why?)

Two is to cast on way more stitches at the beginning than called for, then decrease away all the extra stitches before the ribbing is done. This would cause the garment to flare out just enough at the bottom to accommodate ze 'ips. But it would also ruin the sweater's lines. (Yuck.)

Three is to whack an inch or two out of the pattern's waistial expanse. (Waistial. Ha!)

The third option is The Right Thing To Do.

So I'm going to do that.

Only, I'm going to do it wrong.

If I were really a proper knitter, I would accurately measure myself, carefully review the pattern and my swatch, do the maths, and thereby know precisely how many rows to leave out.

But I'm not.

My plan really is to just whack that inch or two out of the middle.

This is not to say that I'm not thinking ahead. To the contrary.

For example, there are some increases up either side of the front and back. If I knit these according to the pattern, I might find that I haven't fit them all in before the armholes arrive. And I really do need every one.

(Again, a little extra effort and I could be sure one way or the other whether this is an issue. But, you know . . . )

So I am slightly accelerating the increases -- from one stitch per side every 12 rows to one stitch per side every 10 rows. (Conveniently, the pattern has a 10 row repeat, so I have cleverly avoided needing to keep separate track of when my next increase should be.)

With more luck than I deserve, this will all work out great.

*****

Anyone else notice that almost everything I am working on is predominantly blue? Posy. The sweater for Dulaan. The denim mitered squares. The pseudo-Prairie Blanket. My poor, ignored Baby-Norgi-Which-You-Have-Not-Seen -- also blue, though you couldn't have known that. And then there's that Blue Sweater. . . . Downright creepy.