In Which I Learn a Sad Lesson

I have putoff writing this post because I have not wanted to admit that I messed up. Asyou know from the previous post I am working on the Isengard Stole by SusanPandorf. However, due to differences with the yarn, I had to frog the stole.The yarn I chose was not right for the project. It was too thin almost laceweight. That may have been fine for some, but I prefer a more substantial yarnwhen working with this pattern. So I have learned a sad lesson. Sometimes theyarn just screams at you ‘Don’t knit me into this project!’ I guess it isbetter to learn this now than later after much work. I had only knit about 4inches of the pattern so I was not very far along. The good news is I love thepattern and am already looking for a better yarn. I have some Bare Gloss yarnfrom Knit Picks that I am thinking of dyeing and using for this pattern. Thiswill probably be a project for next year when I get back from furlough. As forthe yarn, I think it will end up being a lightweight sweater for summer. In themean time the year of knitting selfishly continues.

The yarn that screamed.

Instead ofIsengard, I have been knitting on the Argonath stole. I am up to the fifthrepeat of the center motif. So far, the yarn and the pattern are working outgreat. Since I no longer have Isengard in the lineup for this year, I havedecided to substitute this pattern in its place. The pattern is very fun toknit and fairly intuitive. After reading the Argonath thread on Ravelry, I havebeen able to avoid some of the mistakes that others made. I mentioned last postthat I appreciate the fact that I can look up a pattern on Ravelry and see whatothers say about the pattern. This saves me some hassle and stress, both ofwhich I do not need right now. The yarn I bought for my birthday is yummy. Ilike watching the color changes and feeling the soft yarn as it glides throughmy fingers and onto the needles. Beautiful!

The Argonath

Thecraziness is still ongoing, however. After frogging the Isengard, I cast on asweater in Gloss and Essential from Knit Picks. Some months ago, I watchedLaura Bryant’s video ‘A Knitter’s Guide to Color.’ She stated that you couldtake any three colors in the same value family and make a fabric that appeared tobe a different color by using a single row stripe in the three yarns. I just ‘happened’to have three different colors in the same yarn and in the same value family. (Infact, they were in the same color family too. I do like my Blues.) So I swatchedto see how the colors would interact and decided to try it. I have added afourth blue in Essential to be a stripe at the waistline and across theshoulders. It is also the lining in the turned hems. I am using a variation ofElizabeth Zimmerman’s set in sleeve in the round pattern for the sleeves and adeep v-neck. I am hoping that instead of reading as stripes, the differentcolors will look like one color. We will see how this experiment turns out. Ihave named it ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’

The yarn for Rhapsody in Blue.

Since thelast post, I have learned that yarn DOES scream at you sometimes when you are knittingit into the wrong object. I had heard of this happening but had not reallyexperienced it yet.  I have also learnedthat designing is a lot of fun and I may do more of it in the future. Until thenext time, keep on knitting and learning.