Kyoto Deconstructed.

Warning: This may be painful to see.


I'm telling you, if you can't handle seeing an innocent sweater torn to bits...


You should really turn away now.


It might give you nightmares.

I cannot be held responsible if you need knitting therapy after seeing what you are about to view.

Are you ready?

Can you handle it?

Ok, here we go...

Background story--last year while in Japan a lovely friend was good enough to bring back from a US trip a boxful of KP shine sport in four colors, turquoise, river, sand and grass, for myself and a friend to do a mini-KAL of Kyoto. The knitting was easy. Too easy. I got a lesson in seaming while learning how to put together the 7 (7!) pieces of Kyoto. I liked the yarn, I liked the simple knitting, I almost liked the double moss stitch used for the obi and cuffs and neckline. I knit the obi longer than called for since I didn't really want it to be a cropped sweater. I also knit the sleeves a little longer than called for since I wanted them to be full length and I don't believe they were intended to be. I thought I did everything right. I think I had knitted all the pieces before I left Japan in July 2006. I seamed at home in August. I got this:

Saggy and shapeless. Not well seamed, and not exciting enough to make me want to re-do it.

The cotton, though, I felt would live to see another day. After blue Kyoto suffered in a drawer for the better part of a year while I was off trying to sort out next steps and find employment, I gritted my teeth and started to pull everything apart.

I began.

I picked apart my crappy seams.


I pulled on any knots that presented themselves and undid them.

I got pieces, straining to pull away from other pieces.


It was very satisfying when I reached the end of a seam and got a piece to break away from its friends.


Sometimes it was necessary to frog as I went along in order to avoid bad tangles...


I had to admit, as time went by, that this was not a one day job. Here we are at the end of the first session.


The second day I got right back to it, determined to finish the job in less time than it took me to put the thing together.

At last it was all in pieces, the easier for frogging all at once, my dear.



I frogged like a demon.

Finally I ended up with a beautiful bowlful of redeemed potential.


Since then the yarn has been reincarnated as a market bag for CK:


The beginnings of Badia:

Which came out too wide and silly looking, so it has also been frogged.

And the next project for this cotton just might be the Summertime Tunic from IK. I recently acquired a copy of the summer issue, lucky for me.

I also just encountered someone on Ravelry who knitted a beautiful one piece no seam version of Kyoto. I couldn't find a post on her blog about it but it's in red Noro Cash Iroha and it's really lovely. Wish I'd been so clever. Ha!