Check out the hungry lil mouth in the lower left-hand corner of the bottom picture! So sweet.
Ever have a yarn that you loved but it just didn't love you back? That's how it's been with me and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. I bought a bunch over a year ago to make a gorgeous rectangular wrap from VK. So soft, and I loved the color. A few inches in though, the yarn just...didn't work, somehow. It didn't look quite right. So, I frogged it.
Next, I cast on for Wandering Aran Fields. The ribbing was okay, and most of the first part of the cables, but a few twists and turns in and I realized the problem: The yarn has no body whatsoever. Now, I know that alpaca, soft as it is, tends to be a little bit floppy, but this stuff is really, really floppy. Really floppy yarn makes for droopy, saggy cables. So, a-frogged it shall be.
I guess I knew in my heart it wasn't going well but I was in a bit of denial about the possibilities for this particular yarn. I really liked the yarn, so I tried to force it into patterns I really liked too. And, um, it didn't work. Let this be a lesson to us all: laceweight really doesn't want to be an afghan, and no matter how much you want 'chunky' to turn out 'drapey,' it ain't gonna happen.
I have also had a bunch of Manos hanging around waiting to be made into an Einstein coat. I realized after I bought it that Manos is really only thick enough for Ms Melville's lighter-weight jacket, not the Einstein. In a fit of denial (are you noticing a pattern here?) I continued swatching with different sized needles. The ugly truth is,you can't make 4" out of 3-1/4" no matter how hard you pull and regardless of whether you squint.
The happy ending to the story is that together, the Manos and the Inca have found their purpose in life:
The Einstein coat, gauge=spot-on on size 10-1/2 bamboo circs. (Unless maybe I'm in denial about that too...I hope not.) Watch this space for updates.
In other knitting news, I have finally joined the warshrag set! Check out this coffee cup dishcloth:
This cute little thang took no time at all, and now I am hooked! Great passenger seat knitting. I think my next one will be a Mason-Dixon Ball Band cloth like these ones by ADD; aren't the colors fabulous?
3 comments:
Great save on the yarns! Now we'll see how far you can get with the boring garter stitch :) That's what did me in.
I will be anxious to see your progress on your Einstein coat. Good work on figuring out how to utilize your yarns.
I have never made any dishcloths, but if there was one that could grab me, that coffee cup would be the one!! TOOO cute!
That coffee cup motif is too darn enticing, I might have to have a go at that...and thanks for the shout-out!
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