After posting about Vivaldi not quite coming together right, I took her to the Guilty Knitters for a second (third,fourth and fifth) opinion.

So there I was, in the middle of the shopping center wearing half made pieces of Vivaldi with all the Guilty Knitters pulling, poking and tugging trying to make it fit.

“It’s too tight round the neck. How will you get in and out of  it?”, asked a Guilty Knitter.

“We’ll sew you into it for the winter like they did with Victorian children”, said another Guilty Knitter, helpfully (while giggling).

“There’s something wrong with the sleeves, they don’t meet the neck” said another, more helpfully.

And then came the really good idea….

“Why not take it to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally to the Rowan  stand? Someone there will be able to tell you whats wrong with the pattern or if you’ve done something wrong.”

So that is what I did.

I was lucky enough to have help from the Rowan designer, Lisa Richardson, who was super helpful and knowledgeable.

Here’s a hastily snapped picture of Lisa holding my Vivaldi!

Lisa Richardson, Rowan Designer, diagnosing my Vivaldi

Again I was standing in public wearing a half sewn up Vivaldi and being pulled about.

Lisa had been present at the photo shoot where the photos of Vivaldi in the Rowan mag were taken so she had seen first hand how the finished garment looked and how it was a bit of a wiggle to get into but not as impossible as mine seemed.

“I’m a bit worried about your tension…” And the tape measure came out……

It turns out that my row tension was off. I had 24 rows to 10cm and I should have 28 rows 🙁

The body fits OK because I blocked it to the correct width, affecting the row length. The wrong row length means the neck “scarfy bits” have come up too short and the extra bit of sleeve across the back is too short and therefore tight.

Ghaaa! I should have known 😳

But all is not lost. Undo some sleeve seam to make the back fit, knit some more length on the  “scarfie bits” and I should be OK 🙂

So do you want to see what goodies I got at Ally Pally?

Next post (coming soon) !