Gigantic Gaping Fifi Chunks
Fifi is a whore. A filthy, diseased whore. I hate you, Fifi.
I have WIP guilt. Plus, if I do the NaKniSweMo thing, I’ll be ignoring Fifi for yet another month. So I thought I should at least get the body done, if not the stupid sleeves. My brilliant plan was to put in some little slits at the hip. I like side slits. They’re cute and give the Giant Hips a little extra wiggle room. But there was a problem.
I should have foreseen the problem.
I blame my rampant stupidity.
See, I knit Fifi with a whole lot of negative ease. That’s fine, because Calmer is stretchy. There isn’t very much waist and hip shaping in the pattern. That’s fiiiiine, because Calmer is stretchy. But guess what. If you introduce slits to the sides, Calmer stops stretching at that point, because there’s nothing pulling at it. The result is gigantic gaping chunks of non-shirt, instead of small, cute slits. Well, crap.
I tried Fifi on. Noted the gigantic gaping chunks. Noted the uneven stitches, the weird random wrinkles (how can it possibly wrinkle? Thanks to Exxxtreeeeeme Negative Ease, the thing is sized for a five-year-old), the armholes that appeared to be too big, and also the gigantic gaping chunks. Then I noted that I was trying it on with a sports bra and sweatpants and that surely couldn’t be helping things any.
Changed into a proper bra and pants, and things looked a little better. A little.
Yeah, I experimentally tied up a gigantic gaping chunk with some Unnecessary Ribbon. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t leave them as gigantic gaping chunks. That’s just not attractive.
I can rip back and reknit without the slits, but I think it’ll cling too much towards the bottom. I can reknit with extra hip increases, but that would draw a lot of attention to the messy-looking purl columns running down the sides. I don’t know why they’re messy-looking, but they are. I can shorten it to the point above the slits, since it fits okay up to there, but I think that would be a bit too short.
Or I can do the ribbon thing. Eh. I think it looks a bit trashy, especially given that the top is so fitted. But maybe a bright peach cutesy cable-knit top can’t look trashy. I don’t knoooow.
Fifi is an armless WHORE.
I think if it was tied with a cream ribbon….that with the peach would make it have no chance of looking trashy.
27 Oct 2007 at 4:29 pmBut the black does make it a bit edgy. I say stick with the ribbon idea either way.
I say go with the ribbon, only change it to less of a contrasting color–something lighter. I like how the ribbon looks. Not trashy at all.
27 Oct 2007 at 6:28 pmmmmmm, yeah, I’m thinking the ribbon up the side has a definite “afterthought” air about it. but I think it would work if you used a matching ribbon. but you’d have to use the same ribbon up top of course, too, and I kind of like the black ribbon up by the neck. but man, I definitely understand not wanting to frog and reknit… any last-chance options get tested before I even consider reknitting. then things get messy and scary and I reknit anyways… sigh. Yeah. I’ve been terribly unhelpful.
27 Oct 2007 at 6:56 pmI’ll be sad when the saga of Fifi finally ends.
That being said – I don’t think it looks trashy. I rather like Becca’s idea of using a matching ribbon, perhaps therein lies the answer?
28 Oct 2007 at 2:08 pmI don’t think it looks trashy at all, but maybe I just don’t have taste. ;)
I agree with Christy, with a cream ribbon it couldn’t possibly be trashy.
28 Oct 2007 at 11:14 pmI actually rather like the black ribbon – does that mean that I’M trashy??? :D Haha!!
A peach-coloured ribbon might be nice? Keeping the slits, but without drawing too much attention to them..
I’d panic about having to frog it. I’d most *definitely* never knit it back up. I hope you find a solution that you like; it’d be such a shame to toss it. :(
29 Oct 2007 at 10:22 amI like the ribbon. I like the whole thing actually!
29 Oct 2007 at 12:24 pmI like the ribbon also! It looks very Hipster-ish.
29 Oct 2007 at 9:59 pmCould you seam up the slits with Mattress Stitch or something?
I like the ribbon too!
30 Oct 2007 at 7:03 pmI guess your idea of trashy and mine are quite different. I think it’s beautiful and sexy (a very different thing than trashy), and it looks great on. I like the ribbon and you could change that with your mood. If you really hate it, and it hates you, give it PROUDLY as a gift. And not only that, you did a great job!
31 Oct 2007 at 8:38 amI think that it is cute, I agree with some of the other ladies though, try some cream color ribbon maybe.
31 Oct 2007 at 5:03 pmYou can go with a peach ribbon but a couple tones darker than the actual sherbert colour of the yarn. That would:
Make it look less like an afterthought
Conserve your modesty!
The black yarn is too harsh, but ribbons with similar colour tones will work. Don’t use cream, unless it’s a rich, luscious expensive cream ribbon, or it will look cheap.
Ask me how I know. :*(
16 Nov 2007 at 5:54 am