I’m not sure what I’ve done to incur the wrath of the knitting gods, but it must have been something terrible. Their vengeance is dire.

First, I had been knitting madly away at my Elfin cardigan, determined to actually finish a sweater for myself. I started a new ball of yarn when working on my 600+ stitch ruffle. It seemed fine at first, but I began to notice that the Kid Silk Haze was rougher, more brittle feeling than what I had used to knit the other ruffles. I also noticed that it was distinctly darker than the previous ball of yarn. With dread in my heart, I checked the ball bands one more time. Sure enough, they were different dye lots. The ball bands were even slightly different in style, so I presume one ball was produced at a much earlier date than the other. I have no idea how this SNAFU occurred. I swear I checked the bands when I bought the yarn…so one of the angry knitting gods MUST have done a switcharoo on me. Thanks a million, evil knitting god. :devil:

Because they are ruffles and not continuous pieces of stockinette stitch, I thought that the different dye lots wouldn’t bother me so much, so I continued working on the big ruffle. Unfortunately, it wasn’t knitting up into as fluffy a ruffle as the others. It was much stiffer. I didn’t like the way it looked at all, so I decided to start over.

I ended up buying one more ball of KSH. It’s not the same dye lot as the other balls, but it does appear to be closer in tone to what I used for the first batch of ruffles. Here’s hoping it works out.

I’m really not that picky.

OK, I am.

When I wasn’t working on Elfin, I picked up Audrey. It’s a fairly quick knit and I was making good progress on it. Two things occurred that made me rethink this project. First, I saw a sample at one of the local shops and didn’t like it. Whoever knit it didn’t do a bad job–the knitting itself looked fine. I just wasn’t crazy about the style. Perhaps this is the type of sweater that really must be worn to show off its charms. Because I suspected that, I didn’t give up immediately.

Then the second thing occurred. Claudia wrote an intriguing post about evaluating potential projects. She said:

If you wouldn’t go into a store and buy the garment ready-made, you’ve got absolutely no business knitting it.

OK, so would I buy Audrey off the wrack? The answer is no. I don’t usually wear such form-fitting garments because they make me feel extremely self-conscious, especially now that I’m trying to lose some of the weight I put on during my pregnancy. I also have my doubts about how I’d like the collar. Anything that wide would make me worry about the sweater slipping off or my bra straps peeking out. I don’t want to fuss with my clothing.

Having decided that, I frogged the sweater and started looking for another sweater that I’d like better. I’ve now decided to use my yarn to knit Air from the Calmer collection. It’s such a pretty cardigan and will provide an interesting challenge for me.

The funny thing is, despite these setbacks, I haven’t felt discouraged about my knitting. In fact, I’m as excited as I ever was about it. Perhaps it’s because the bucket hat I’m knitting for my son seems to be turning out really well:

I’m using Bonne Marie’s new Bottom’s Up pattern for this. I like it much better than the previous pattern which I used to knit my bucket hat last winter. It’s kind of like a toe-up sock which you can try on and adjust as you go. This time, I’m not going to end up with a hat band that is too narrow. It will be juuuuuuuuust right :flowerhat:

I’m using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Mariner Blue for this project. It’s not as bright as it appears in the photo. It’s a little duller in tone, kind of like blue jeans. Not being very experienced at knitting with cotton, I was flummoxed by how much it splits. I’ve had to wield a crochet hook almost as much as I’ve used my knitting needles. Also, some of the other bucket-alongers have commented that Cotton Fleece is too soft to make a proper bucket hat. I don’t agree with that assessment right now, as it seems to be working just fine here. :twocents: It is standing up on it’s own. Also, I’m not sure how anyone could knit the brim with a firmer cotton yarn. Using two strands of worsted weight cotton and small needles makes that a real tug-of-war game!

Read the rest of this entry »

Claudia made me think hard about some of my current knitting projects and whether they’re really worth all the time and effort I’d have to invest in them. She provided the following invaluable advice for evaluating potential projects:

If you wouldn’t go into a store and buy the garment ready-made, you’ve got absolutely no business knitting it.

The truth is, I’d probably never buy an Elfin off the rack. I’m not a fluffy ruffles kind of gal. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I was DYING to knit Kid Silk Haze ruffles. The challenge appealed to me and I actually am enjoying the process. Since I’m already 80% done with Elfin (I’m working on the monster ruffle now), I’m going to finish the cardigan, photograph myself wearing it while frolicking through one of the lovely wooded areas around here and then pat myself on the back.

I probably wouldn’t buy Audrey off the rack either. For one thing, I never wear anything that is that form-fitting. It makes me feel too self-conscious. I also never wear tops with wide collars like that. I’m always worrying about them slipping off or my bra strap showing. Sooooooooooooooooo…. since I haven’t done too much on it so far, I’m going to :frog: the darned thing and find a more suitable pattern…probably a cardigan. I :lovestruck: cardigans!