I spoke too soon...

Here is a totally lame web-cam photo of the smock-tastic, i-cord edged yoke of Coraline, which I cast off last night.

You may remember that in my last post I was extolling the joys of seamless construction, and might therefore be justified in thinking that this baby was now pretty much done. Well... I think my previous smugness was really a flimsy front. I present Lame Web-Cam Photo 2: the bottom edge.

I think what's going on here is that the inside of the hem, instead of sitting neatly and meekly inside the outer hem is aggressively pulling the edge in to form this bizarre pucker. I suspect that this is my fault, perhaps stemming from using too small a needle for the first few rows. I'm not sure. Because I couldn't quite understand what had caused the problem, I attempted to make it disappear by ignoring it. I smoothed it out. I tugged at it. I told myself that it would block out. And when all of these measures failed, I resorted to just not looking at the funny little dragon snouts that was marring the edges of what was shaping up to be an otherwise delectable garment. The above twin monstrosities were dangling off my needles for a month. I was in denial. I was Cleopatra, Queen of Denial. I conquered the i-cord cast-on, mastered smocking and vanquished Japanese short-rows to battle to the end of this cardigan. Finally, late last night, after grafting the final stitches together, I tried it on.

As you, or indeed, a moderately intelligent four-year-old (perhaps you are a moderately intelligent four-year-old; I wouldn't want to make assumptions about my readership), might have already realised, the above dilemma is not one that either blocking or sheer force of will can solve. To add insult to injury, the darn thing is too long, and the weirdo puckers are currently sitting unflattering over my hips, a problem that will most likely get worse with wear. The yarn is 100% superfine alpaca, which makes it divinely soft, but devilishly prone to stretching. 

There's no way around it. I am going to have to unravel and re-knit the bottom. When I pluck up the courage to do so, I am tempted to try and make a virtue of a painful necessity, and give this edge a go.