Aran Duffle Coat a.k.a. My Nemesis

I have been planning to knit this coat for myself for at least three years. I found the pattern, which was a freebie at the time from Knitting Daily and loved it. I made one for my sister who was pregnant at the time, and she liked it because it was warm and big. She is much, much smaller than I am in height and weight - always has been. I knew I only had one knit of it in me at that time, it was the perfect interim warm-wear for her.

A year later, I thought I would knit it for myself. I bought the yarn. At the time, I was at my heaviest. The thought of all that knitting was just too much. So I decided to wait. Ironically, last year, I was diagnosed with diabetes and a very under active thyroid. Ironic because it forced me to lose weight which I am still working on, but to date I have lost over 100 lbs. I have been planning to knit it since the summer. Much less knitting than it would have been two years ago -- or so I thought.

In my last post about it, I had just the button bands to finish. A few Sundays ago, I did just that. I was so excited about being able to wear it to work the next day. I tried it on and UGH...I hated the hood. It felt way too bulky, and I also realized I needed to make the button & button-hole bands wider. I knit this a little smaller figuring next winter it would fit perfectly. Making the bands wider would allow me to wear it for the remainder of this winter. Anyway, I was aggrivated, but still excited. Last Sunday, I took to it again. I removed and frogged the hood. I knit a nice roll collar. I widened the button bands. I put it on and boom, the bottom of it lays behind my hips because I figured out that there is too much decreasing at the top of the fronts so it sort of "falls" behind my legs at the bottom. I sat down to survey how I could fix this problem, and realized I would have to rip out the sleeves, and the fronts down enough so I could re-knit the front-tops. I was so upset, I threw it into the bottom of my closet and there it sits. So much for the Aran Duffle Coat.

I remembered I had a lacey scarf I started with Knit Picks Stroll but ran out of yarn. So I ordered the yarn and that is now my priority project. No fronts to deal with, no hoods, no aggrivation.

Thinking of all that frogging, I ordered this Simplicity Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VRF7HQ/ref=oh_o01_s00_i02_details (for some reason Blogger will not let me upload the image where I want to). I have been looking at this for about a year. The price was about $80. I wasn't willing to pay that, but I was willing to pay $55.82 especially after having to wind down 5 hanks of yarn the other night -- my hand and wrist were aching. Guess I'm getting old...