Finishing, ugh

When my boyfriend saw me photographing my shrug yesterday, he gently reminded me that Baby Gabriel was born quite some time ago, to the point where his father is almost done with his paternity leave.



I thought it would not be so bad to finish the sweater of the Cabled Baby Set, but it turns out I am genuinely awful at finishing. Like really, embarrassingly terrible.



Enjoy some more disastrous seams, from the inside.



I thought I was so clever the first time I picked up the stitches for the neckline on the sweater. I used DPNs so that I could knit it all in the round and not have to worry about another bulky seam (having done a number on the preceding shoulder seam). I kept saying to myself "it's just like socks..."



I did all my ribbing, omitted a turning row, and cast off, only to find that it did not stretch at all. I had cast off way too tightly and I couldn't get the neck to stay folded down no matter what I did. It's a pity, because I thought it didn't really look so bad done in this way, but the baby's head definitely wouldn't fit through it comfortably.



Humbled, and more than a bit annoyed, I hastily ripped it all out before figuring out that I could have just tinked back the cast-off row. I followed the instructions this time, knitting it flat, which did go a lot faster. I put the turning row back in, and I knit nice and loosely. I searched around online and came up with the seemingly obvious solution to cast off using a larger needle. I was knitting on size 6's and actually cast off loosely on a size 10, in pattern, but I still thought it might have been a little stretchier.



The picked-up stitches looked a little nicer this time too.



I then started on what would become literally hours of attempted seaming, and man, it's a mess. No matter how many videos or tutorials I went through on mattress stitch, I just couldn't get it right. As I tried to set the sleeve in, I realized that it ends nearly two inches higher than it's supposed to on the body, which will be incredibly uncomfortable for the baby unless he goes around with his arms raised.



The seam itself is rather alarmingly tight as well, and I'm beginning to suspect some kind of massive gauge issue. No matter how much I stretch the other arm, I can't get it to come 4 inches down on the body, let alone 3.



So it is official. I hate this project, and I think it looks awful. I dread taking out all the seaming on this arm or knitting a new arm or something to make it less tight, and to be perfectly honest, I already started searching for something seamless that I could knit to complete this set instead.

My boyfriend said it's too bad because the body and neck look okay. He joked that I could make a turtlenecked vest or muscle tee out of it instead. The baby does live in Brooklyn and his parents are pretty stylish, so he could perhaps pull it off... but I know this is ridiculous.



Also, doesn't it look like a hot water bottle cover?

If I don't abandon it entirely, I will have a lot of fussing to do with this sweater, and I'm really not looking forward to it. Bleh.