Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A little help, please

So I have two problems I'd like to gather your thoughts on. Because I'm totally stumped.

1) For the work Secret Santa thingy, I drew the CEO's wife. I've never met this woman; I know nothing about her. In fact, I'm only assuming it's his wife- they have the same surname. What the heck do I get someone I know absolutely zilch about? 10 quid limit.

2) My train knitting has been a plain stockinette raglan. It has turned out to be totally unlike what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be a plain raglan with a wide, drapey turtleneck/cowl, with belled sleeves and simple natural rolled stockinette hems. In reality:


As you can see, I ran out of yarn. (Yes, really! I know, y'all can't believe it!) Not only can't I do the belled sleeves, but I can't do the turtleneck/cowl either. Which meant the neckline had to be finished off some way- otherwise, it would be too unstructured up there. So there's just a bit of ribbing. The non-belled sleeves is not an issue; they would get in the way at work and were probably a bad idea, anyway. The problem I put to you readers is: what to do about the sleeves now?

I have just enough yarn to finish them off with ribbing as is, but it's a weird length. Short sleeves? Puffy short sleeves? Short drapey sleeves? I have no clue, and I've totally run out of ideas. Even though this didn't come out as I imagined, I think it could still be a good, easily wearable sweater if I sort out the sleeve issue.

Any help and insight appreciated. Pretty please?


P.S: Have you seen Cheryl's Knitty pattern? Totally cute.

7 comments:

darlene mcleod said...

My vote is for short puffy sleeves. They look surprisingly good layered over long-sleeved button-ups, and can be sweet without being too precious.

Overall, I like the sweater, even if it's deviating from the original plan!

Anonymous said...

a. No clue about CEO's wife. 10 quid is a difficult amount to work within.

b. What if you shortened the sleeves a bit and then did an interesting edging on it...picoty but not too lacy. Might give it a little something to keep it from being too plain.

c. Aw shucks, thanks.

asimpleyarn

Anonymous said...

No clue about the sweater, sorry.

CEO's wife though - how about a posh candle - Jo Malone type one in glass jar - or pop into John Lewis (I think there's one in S'ton) and ask for advice there!
Or box of chocolates - boring, yes, but who doesn't like to get a box of chocolates? Plus they're easy to re-gift if she doesn't like them...

chemgrrl said...

I vote for short puffy sleeves! That would be cute.

LauraLili said...

1. John Lewis is a great idea - or some fancy biscuits or chocs or a candle.

2. Capped sleeves - quite a bit shorter. And then you might have some yarn to do the owl with too :-)

jacqueline said...

(1) I still say an iTunes gift card. That's like 2 CDs or 20 songs of her own choosing. A very nice gift for that special someone you know nothing about.

I know I know, gift cards are somewhat uninspired and a little too easy, but frankly I really enjoy getting iTunes cards personally, so why shouldn't everyone else? :)

(2) I second making the sleeves shorter and with interesting detail.

PĂ©itseoga said...

1. google her? or something tiny from a avoca type place? or the i tunes idea sounds good

2. puffy short cap sleeves? quite fashionable at the mo, and good over shirts