A belated tale of two scarves -- one :( and one :)
Back in August, I cast on a Sunday Market Shawl for my friend Margaret's birthday. She is allergic to most animal fibres, so I used a delightfully slinky, shiny synthetic yarn called Lang Opal in a lovely shade of her favourite colour, yellow. (A colour which, much as I may like it, I simply cannot wear myself.) Let's call it "champagne." Anyway, I knit a rather long, wide stockinette rectangle. I was very excited when I got to the end and went to drop the stitches that would make the characteristic ladders through the scarf. And then, to my horror, I found all that really happened was that my stockinette rectangle just got really, really, REALLY big, and really, really loose. It was not what I had pictured at all. It was irredeemably ugly. I snapped a couple of low-light pictures to post a record of this dismal failure on Ravelry, and immediately frogged it in disgust. It was only on going back to the pattern's Ravelry page that I noticed this rather important caveat I had somehow missed when I cast on: "Also, avoid substituting very smooth yarns for the Iroha as ladder definition may be lost." Yeah, no kidding: here is how I had hoped it would look. Here is what I actually ended up with. That'll teach me not to swatch. (I figured I didn't need to -- it's a scarf! Who cares if it's a bit too big or a bit too small?! The swatching gods smote me down, obviously.) Ugh. When I think of all the hours I spent... Honestly, I think Margaret's frogged Sunday Market Shawl has been my most abysmally wasted, horrid piece of knitting in the five years since I started. Sorry Margaret. I do have some new pattern ideas queued for this yarn -- pattern ideas that will work with the yarn instead of against it -- but I seriously doubt I will start over until sometime next year. Maybe for your 40th birthday. We'll see.
Still, I absolutely loved this pattern in all its simplicity, and I was determined to make it work. As mentioned in my last post, I bought the most gorgeous yarn a month ago at the K-W Knitters' Fair, handspun by Linda Janssen of The Roving Spinners: a blend of superwash merino, silk noil, thread and firestar, in the very fittingly named colourway "Leopard Frog." One skein was randomly interspersed with small glass beads in a several shades of green, and one was plain. I knew the Sunday Market Shawl pattern would showcase the subtle variegations in the yarn beautifully, take advantage of its slightly coarse, "sticky" texture (I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice), and make the most of the yardage. I excitedly cast on as soon as I got home from the Fair -- a rainy day perfect for curling up with some knitting -- alternating the beaded and unbeaded skeins every two rows, making subtle stripes. I completed it a week later during a weekend we spent with our friends Neil and Tanya, at the cottage we borrowed from Derek's aunt and uncle. (I'll get around to posting a few pics of that weekend on Flickr eventually.) And voilà: as you can see in the picture above, success! I have to admit that even with this comparatively rougher yarn, I did lose some of the ladder stitch definition at one end of the scarf... but I am still utterly delighted with it. It is appropriately scarf-sized rather than being a gargantuan monstrosity, the little beads make me giddily happy (ooh, SHINY!), and the just plain loose stockinette end is still charming even if it's not quite what I had intended. I've been meaning to blog this for a while now, but it's been a busy month and I was hoping to take some better pictures first. Bah, whatever, the blog needs updating: these will have to do. This is totally my favourite scarf now.
Random updates:
Reading -- The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. This is my first experience of Rushdie. WOW, is he a great writer! Breathtaking.
Listening to -- iTunes Party Shuffle. Have I ever blogged about my undying devotion to the random electronic jukebox that picks out obscure jewels from our combined music collection? I heart Party Shuffle. LoveLoveLove.
Eating -- Of course this past Canadian Thanksgiving weekend was devoted to roast poultry (although it was very yummy chicken, not turkey, in both cases, cooked by Derek and Tim for me and Margaret on Saturday, and by his mum for the big family shindig on Sunday). But the best thing I've eaten in the past while was salmon fillets, topped with a thick smearing of pesto then baked. DIVINE. If you are a fish eater, trust me on this, you *must* try it.
Watching -- The West Wing. Bought the entire series box set on sale from Amazon.ca recently. It's even better than I remembered, and oddly prescient given that the first season began nine years ago. (It has aged surprisingly well.) I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to cable or satellite TV. Watching DVDs and downloads or streaming video, on my schedule, without commercials, is way, WAY too enjoyable and convenient.
Thinking about -- How lucky I am to be able to vote in the Canadian election tonight. Just over ninety years ago, I couldn't have done so, simply because I am a woman. When Derek's grandmother Dorothy was born -- ONE lifetime, 90 years ago -- women couldn't vote yet in this country. I may not be thrilled with the political parties and candidates I get to choose from, or with the unfairness of the first-past-the-post system that allows a party to govern with much less than 50% +1 of the votes cast -- but I am still profoundly privileged to live in a democracy, and you can be damned sure I will be availing myself of that privilege, hard-earned by my forebears, when I hit the polling booth tonight. Canadian soldiers have gone overseas, fought, and died, to defend or win others' right to vote, and continue to do so today. The least I can do to show my gratitude is to be the kind of citizen who doesn't take my right to vote for granted. It only takes a few minutes out of my day every couple years to go cast my ballot. I'm sure Dorothy will have voted. It's a free country -- you're welcome to abstain from voting if that's what you want to do -- but I can't say as I will understand or respect that choice...
Still, I absolutely loved this pattern in all its simplicity, and I was determined to make it work. As mentioned in my last post, I bought the most gorgeous yarn a month ago at the K-W Knitters' Fair, handspun by Linda Janssen of The Roving Spinners: a blend of superwash merino, silk noil, thread and firestar, in the very fittingly named colourway "Leopard Frog." One skein was randomly interspersed with small glass beads in a several shades of green, and one was plain. I knew the Sunday Market Shawl pattern would showcase the subtle variegations in the yarn beautifully, take advantage of its slightly coarse, "sticky" texture (I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice), and make the most of the yardage. I excitedly cast on as soon as I got home from the Fair -- a rainy day perfect for curling up with some knitting -- alternating the beaded and unbeaded skeins every two rows, making subtle stripes. I completed it a week later during a weekend we spent with our friends Neil and Tanya, at the cottage we borrowed from Derek's aunt and uncle. (I'll get around to posting a few pics of that weekend on Flickr eventually.) And voilà: as you can see in the picture above, success! I have to admit that even with this comparatively rougher yarn, I did lose some of the ladder stitch definition at one end of the scarf... but I am still utterly delighted with it. It is appropriately scarf-sized rather than being a gargantuan monstrosity, the little beads make me giddily happy (ooh, SHINY!), and the just plain loose stockinette end is still charming even if it's not quite what I had intended. I've been meaning to blog this for a while now, but it's been a busy month and I was hoping to take some better pictures first. Bah, whatever, the blog needs updating: these will have to do. This is totally my favourite scarf now.
Random updates:
Reading -- The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. This is my first experience of Rushdie. WOW, is he a great writer! Breathtaking.
Listening to -- iTunes Party Shuffle. Have I ever blogged about my undying devotion to the random electronic jukebox that picks out obscure jewels from our combined music collection? I heart Party Shuffle. LoveLoveLove.
Eating -- Of course this past Canadian Thanksgiving weekend was devoted to roast poultry (although it was very yummy chicken, not turkey, in both cases, cooked by Derek and Tim for me and Margaret on Saturday, and by his mum for the big family shindig on Sunday). But the best thing I've eaten in the past while was salmon fillets, topped with a thick smearing of pesto then baked. DIVINE. If you are a fish eater, trust me on this, you *must* try it.
Watching -- The West Wing. Bought the entire series box set on sale from Amazon.ca recently. It's even better than I remembered, and oddly prescient given that the first season began nine years ago. (It has aged surprisingly well.) I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to cable or satellite TV. Watching DVDs and downloads or streaming video, on my schedule, without commercials, is way, WAY too enjoyable and convenient.
Thinking about -- How lucky I am to be able to vote in the Canadian election tonight. Just over ninety years ago, I couldn't have done so, simply because I am a woman. When Derek's grandmother Dorothy was born -- ONE lifetime, 90 years ago -- women couldn't vote yet in this country. I may not be thrilled with the political parties and candidates I get to choose from, or with the unfairness of the first-past-the-post system that allows a party to govern with much less than 50% +1 of the votes cast -- but I am still profoundly privileged to live in a democracy, and you can be damned sure I will be availing myself of that privilege, hard-earned by my forebears, when I hit the polling booth tonight. Canadian soldiers have gone overseas, fought, and died, to defend or win others' right to vote, and continue to do so today. The least I can do to show my gratitude is to be the kind of citizen who doesn't take my right to vote for granted. It only takes a few minutes out of my day every couple years to go cast my ballot. I'm sure Dorothy will have voted. It's a free country -- you're welcome to abstain from voting if that's what you want to do -- but I can't say as I will understand or respect that choice...
1 Comments:
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about that sad sad laddering tale. That really sucks.
Don't you just love Salman Rushdie? He is tied for my favourite author with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The Moor's Last Sigh is one of my favourites. My favourite of his is The Ground Beneath Her Feet. You'll love it.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home