I’ve got a dilemma.
It’s a dilemma of my own creation, because I insisted on making a sweater without actually having a plan. I should have had a plan.
I really should have had a plan.
Now I have… this:
Possibly the world’s least-flattering sweater.
Ignore the sleeve situation for a second, and let me walk you through what happened.
My original thought was to knit up a stash-busting sweater using the lace-weight alpaca that I’ve had in my stash for literal years. I love all the colors, but haven’t had the time/energy for lace since… the early 2000s. I actually knit up a swatch with the yarn held triple, and it seemed like it was going to work. The first plan was to make a cropped, over-sized sweater, in the vein of the Love Note. Super cute and trendy.
Well, I got carried away (a combination of quarantine blues and some good Netflix shows), and before I knew it, I had a hip-length sweater. Not what I planned, but hey, that’s ok.
I tried it on. It fit… well enough. Even though I did a swatch, I forgot to factor in the inherent drapiness of alpaca. It’s really kind of shapeless and droopy. Don’t get me wrong… it’s real comfortable and soft, but not the most flattering thing ever.
It was time to tackle the sleeves. My first thought was to just make it into a T-shirt- something trendy and cute, and something I could wear sooner than later with summer on the way. I threw a quick short sleeve on the sweater. I tried it on…
Y’all. It was so wide across the shoulders (WAY too many raglan increases), that the armpit hits just a couple inches above my elbow. It looks OK enough if I keep my arms down, but if I lift them up, I get a weird bat-wing look (and not in a good way).
So, I decide to make the other sleeve long. I use my usual long sleeve formula, and make it up in a weekend.
I’ve got big hopes. I try it on. Ugh.
It’s… fine, but way baggier than I hoped. If I really want the sweater to be how I’m now imagining it, I have to rip it all the way back past the armpits and try again, and I’m just not feeling that now.
So, I’m asking you: What should I do?
Long sleeve? Short sleeve? Re-knit the long sleeve so it’s narrower? Give up and walk around with one long sleeve like a crazy person? Give up entirely?
(Don’t mind my dog and my kid barking at the cars driving by… It was a day.)
Have you ever gotten almost to the end of a project, just to realize you did it all wrong?
On the Needles 
Ugh I’ve been here. On both occasions where I ripped out entire sweaters and re-knit them, they hibernated for six months to a year first. I’d recommend hibernating, and then considering re-working the raglan shaping. I’d just pick the sleeves that would make you wear the sweater more, either could work. I really like the way these colors work, though, so I think it’s a project worth salvaging. I know you had wished you planned the colorwork a little better, so you have a chance to redeem yourself on that too.
Long sleeves. It will be comfortable on a cold day when you’re staying in.
I totally get the dilemma!! Long sleeves would give it the comfy oversized sweatshirt look; if that’s not what you’re after, in my experience short sleeves help to create the illusion that the sweater is less baggy (especially if the sleeves have fairly snug cuffs, like the short sleeve on your sweater seems to have).
Go long sleeve. As Pat Chadwick said, cozy and comfy on a cold day! You can never have too many cocoon clothes.
Long Sleeves definitely. If you are feeling ambitious then rework the long sleeve to be less full otherwise is sure looks comfy!
Susan
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