A little cheese, a little whine
I cast-on for my first project of the new year last Friday. I was full of excitement, hope, and knitting promise. The yarn was a good match for the pattern, light colored with good stitch definition. A very good start!
Alas, the most unexpected and most terrible thing happened!
That’s right. I ran out of yarn. Good grief! The hat size I was currently working was only a Medium, and the pattern requirements lists 220 yards as sufficient for even the Extra-Large size.
What happened? My gauge’s spot on. Apparently, the Wool-Ease just wasn’t “yarn enough” for this project. Quite upsetting. I was just one round away from starting the crown decreases, which included a further eight rounds. That’s it. And I had… no… more… yarn. Stupid, stupid!
Have I suddenly been cursed? Are the knitting gods laughing at me?
The way I saw it, I had three choices: 1) finish the silly thing with another color of Wool-Ease, 2) cut off the cuff and use the yarn to finish the crown, or 3) frog the whole thing.
Yuck! I didn’t want to rip back what could be a perfectly good hat. I wasn’t enthusiastic about cannibalizing the cuff because it was my favorite part of the project—I really wanted to retain this feature. So, I dug up some leftover Wool-Ease and grudgingly finished the silly hat.
The pom pom was Mom’s idea; she really wanted to adopt this hat and requested I attach one. She even made it for me! I admit that continuing the gray color from the crown to the pom-pom helped pull things together nicely, but still…
Pattern: “Gansey Watch Cap” by Charlene Schurch, Hats On! Size: Medium (18-inch circumference) Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease, 99 Fisherman - entire skein, and 151 Gray Heather - 14 grams Needles: Susan Bates Quicksilver and Takumi Clover US 6 (4 mm) circulars Started: January 4, 2008 Completed: January 6, 2008
Token Progress: 1 of 10
SKD January Challenge: 228 yards out of 1760
accessories, knitting |
20 stitches to “A little cheese, a little whine”
Please make a stitch.
Nice save! That is a really cool pattern.
A very good save. And it doesn’t look like a save.
It looks like you planned it that way!
I like the look of it! The pom pom really finishes it nicely too. I like the tracking indicators you have for the tokens earned and the yardage used.
Yay, Mom! An excellent save.
ingenious!
The hat turned out great. The pompom did tie everything together nicely.
Very cute! I like the grey on there!
I really love that pattern. The grey looks nice.
I think it looks fantastic with the grey, but I can totally understand your frustration. Silly yarn.
I think it’s really cute!
Looks good! (and don’t you love that book? it taught me how to do a few things… like long tail cast on purl-wise).
Good save mom. Good hat Harriet. Ok, now I sound like Suess.
Yes, Tracey, you do. It’s cracking me up.
Bad yarn! Cute hat.
Oh, no! But I like it! Good save!
Good call, Mom! The pom-pom definitely pulled it together!
And it appears the knitting gods are smiling upon you again, since I see you’re the winner of the Socks in the Cities prize this month! Congrats!
The pompom saves it - seriously! Didn’t notice until you pointed it out.
Excellent save! The pompom really does help. It makes it look like you planned it that way. Nice pattern!
I think having the pom pom up there totally makes it look like a design feature. Great idea!!