A Salutary Reason To Knit A Tension Square

For a couple of months I've been knitting the lovely Lush cardigan designed by Tin Can Knits. A few years ago I bought three hand-dyed skeins of Killer Flamingo DK from Rainbow Heirloom.  They remained in my stash whilst I ummed and ahhed over what to knit with it. Finally I put the yarn and pattern together and - bingo! - knitted Lush in front of the TV most nights.

First you knit the lace shoulder border, block it, then pick up stitches to knit the collar and finally pick  up stitches on the underside of the border to knit the rest. I was very much looking forward to wearing it and bought rainbow buttons from Kate Davies' shop to give it a whimsical feel.

What I didn't do is knit a tension square beforehand. I'm size extra small in jumpers and cardigans. That's what I always am - right?

Wrong. I thought the cardigan looked suspiciously tiny. I tried it on before knitting the button bands and it was a stretch to pull it around my shoulders. Desperate to make it fit I doubled the size of one of the button bands (I couldn't do both as I'd run out of yarn) but of course this made the cardigan look skew wiff. The buttons pulled, the joins gaped and the shoulders screamed for more room. My Lush was sadly beyond saving.

Here's what Lush should look like:

Image courtesy of Tin Can Knits

And here's what my Lush ended up as:

The next two sizes up require four, not three skeins and I've ordered a custom-dye batch from Rainbow Heirloom, again in Killer Flamingo, because I love the colour so much and want a Lush cardigan.

As it's hand-dyed the yarn will be slightly different shade-wise from my leftovers. I've got my eye on the t-shirt Rosamund by Katya Frankel to knit with them. That's when I stop kicking myself for my daft mistake that is.

Heed my sorry warning. Knit a tension square!

Do you have any epic knitting fail stories? Do please let me know!