A little cheese, a little whine
Posted by limedragon | Filed under accessories, knitting
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
Tags: challenge, charlene-schurch, gansey, gray, hats, kaplooey, lion-brand, mom, pompom, stashdown, tan, wool-ease
January 7th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Nice save! That is a really cool pattern.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:34 am
A very good save. And it doesn’t look like a save.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am
It looks like you planned it that way!
January 7th, 2008 at 11:24 am
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.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Yay, Mom! An excellent save.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
ingenious!
January 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The hat turned out great. The pompom did tie everything together nicely.
January 7th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Very cute! I like the grey on there!
January 7th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I really love that pattern. The grey looks nice.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I think it looks fantastic with the grey, but I can totally understand your frustration. Silly yarn.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I think it’s really cute!
January 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
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).
January 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Good save mom. Good hat Harriet. Ok, now I sound like Suess.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Yes, Tracey, you do. It’s cracking me up.
Bad yarn! Cute hat.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Oh, no! But I like it! Good save!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Good call, Mom! The pom-pom definitely pulled it together!
January 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am
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!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
The pompom saves it – seriously! Didn’t notice until you pointed it out.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Excellent save! The pompom really does help. It makes it look like you planned it that way. Nice pattern!
January 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I think having the pom pom up there totally makes it look like a design feature. Great idea!!