Silly me. I assumed something and we know what that means.
My iPad cover swatch. Remember it?
I pinned the felted swatch to the cover on my ironing board to dry so I could use the squares as my measurement.
Great plan.
Those squares are one inch so my swatch would be five inches square. And I really had to tug to get the width to five inches.
Mr. Aitch’s cover was 48-49 stitches so I thought I would make this one a few stitches bigger since I was doing a two-color design and I had to work within the color pattern. I cast on 26 stitches for this swatch since I planned on 52 stitches for the width. Wonderful. I needed the cover to be about 10 inches wide. This was going to be a piece of cake.
After felting and measuring the wet swatch, I went on my merry way. Now with only a few more rows left to knit I’ll be ready to felt in no time. Then I decided to remeasure the dry swatch one more time. The swatch is not five inches square. The swatch is 4.5 inches square and the finished cover just might not be wide enough. How can this be? It must have been stretched so much that once it was unpinned, it relaxed. Relaxed a half inch. Which translates to one inch on the finished project.
Had I realized this before I cast on, I could have just made it eight stitches wider. But n-o-o-o. I had to hurry up and cast on before checking and double checking my swatch. Length-wise there is no problem. I can knit a few more repeats. Width-wise is the issue.
I’m going away next week and really, really, really wanted to have this cover finished for my iPad.
Do I keep going as though nothing is wrong and hope and pray (and tug, and tug, and tug) that it will fit?
Do I pick up some stitches along the sides and make a gusset-type of thing?
What would you do?
Knitting In Flashes 
Um, does this mean mine isnt going to be wide enough? My iPad will probably be obsolete by the time I finish the cover, but at least it’ll be pretty!
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No, yours should be big enough. The two-color pattern I’m doing draws it in more than a one-color knit. If you look inside the Musica mitts or hot water bottle cover, you can see how the unused yarn is carried across the worng side. When that felts, that strand of yarn shrinks too and can pull the piece in more. The yarn that is carried across the wrong side has to be very loose.
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Oooh, or add a crocheted edge… because I know how much you love to crochet.
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Ok, I’m coming to visit and you can do the crochet for me while I hold the twins.
Deal?
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Deal
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What about if you don’t felt it all the way? It would still be thicker than regular knit fabric, just not as thick as a complete felt? Otherwise, I think I might go with the gusset idea. It’d be a shame to start over…
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Maybe I over felted the swatch so I like your idea of not felting it completely. I’m not going to get this finished and felted by tomorrow when I leave town. Oh, well.
Thanks.
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Are you knitting this flat or in the round? I’m confused as to how you would pick up stitches along the side if it’s knit in the round, which patterns like this usually are. It is a very pretty color combo/pattern too. It would be a shame to see it go to waste.
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It’s knitted flat. I made up the pattern as I when and didn’t think about knitting it in the round. Would have saved me from seaming the sides. I think I’ll just continue with what I’m doing and check it often as it felts.
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Well, you know what i would do. Yup. Throw it away because I couldn’t cope with it. You on the other hand…..love to fix, and recalculate, and think and think and think. You put so much into everything you do that you will gusset it. It will still look awesome….and NO ONE will ever know it was not suppossed to be that way. Felt away little sister!
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I actually thought about doing a gusset when I started it but when I finished with the front and started on the back, I forgot about it. I could have easily cast on a few more stitches on each side and have a solid side piece knitted with the rest of it.
I may nave over felted the swatch so I could just be very careful when I do felt this and stop the process when it is the right size.
Unfortunately I’m not going to have this finished for tomorrow…
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start over
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Well, even if it doesn’t work out.. I love the colors and the pattern. You could always start over and say it was made to be a coaster? 😉 Who’ll know?….well…except all of us. LOL
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