The Stresses of Designing...

You might recognize this photo - I added it to my blog way back in Mar/Apr of this year. I am designing a spring cardigan for Simply Shetland and I love what I have designed. In fact, it might be my favorite to date. Unfortuneately, I was given no deadline and since acquiring this yarn, I have been lucky enough to have received several deadlined contracts. So...this poor cardigan which has not deadline, has been put on the back burner on and off for 6 months. Now that my last contract was complete, I've pulled this project out again and I'm committed to finishing it up. I am working from the bottom up and the sleeves from the shoulder down. I have completed both sleeves and tried it on. I don't like the sleeves. It's way too bulky under the arm and it looks terrible. After many sleepless nights of trying to figure out how to correct this issue, I think I've got it figured out. So now I need to take out both sleeves and re-do them (crossing my fingers that my new idea is a good one). Once the sleeves are done, the rest is a piece of cake. I'm really a traditional knitter working the individual pieces and then seaming them up. This is my first 1-piece cardigan and I now see the problem with a set in sleeve that is worked from the shoulder down. If the set in sleeve has too much initial armhole bind off - then there is too much bulk. What I should have done is gradually decreased the entire armhole without having any 1" bind off at the beginning as you would have in a normal set in sleeve. I'm hoping my theory works. I'm anxious to finish it - I bet Simply Shetland is too! The owner of Simply Shetland has been a dream to work with but I still feel quilty for taking so much time. I'm just hoping that she loves it enough to make it worth her wait.