i’m out

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i don’t know if you would call this a technical failure, or maybe an equipment failure, or more accurately, a complete failure of judgement, but all in all, it ranks pretty high on my dumb-ass error list. (hmm, which do you think it will be . . .).

as you may remeber, i chose a beautiful alpaca fingering-weight yarn for my moth shawl, which i purchased in paris five years go at la droguerie, where yarn does not have labels, but is hung in heavy hanks, according to fiber and color, along the walls and purchased by the kilo.

this yarn is lovely and is knitting up a treat—just what i had envisioned, and so soft!
well, back to saturday night, there i am knitting away on my fifth repeat of twin lace pattern, enjoying the merry rhythm i am keeping up as i near the last part of the shawl, happy as all get-out, when suddenly i notice this

do you see it? i’m talking about that collapsed corpse of what WAS a huge ball of yarn only hours earlier. i gasped—where had it all gone?? i finished two-thirds of the shawl with the first (and smaller ball). i was certain i had enough to finish with the second ball.

ahem. i hadn’t really counted my yardage beforehand, but i was sure—no, well, not exactly—i was pretty sure i’d had enough.
so i refigured things as i tore out a repeat of twin leaf lace and tried again.

sigh. drat! those tricky shawls, they always start eating up yarn just after you realize you might not have enough. so what did i do?
that’s right! i stayed in denial til the last possible moment, and then had to tear out two repeats of twin leaf again (rows of approx 375 to 425 sts each), in order to refigure the ending part.

i ended up abbreviating the twin leaf to 4 total repeats, then when i tried to make all the way through the corona edging, i ran out again, and had to tear back to end at row 11. PLUS, i had to add a few rows in another color.

this sort of striping at the edge IS, at least, in the shetland tradition. i always wanted to do it on a shawl, but never had a good reason to possibly ruin the look of something

(the stripes can appear to be sort of garish, but they definitely ARE a tradition. (hmm. tradition my foot. we all know where traditions get their starts!)

it’s been soaking for a while now, so i am going to go off and block it. but have i learnt my lesson?? ha! that, indeed is the question.

15 thoughts on “i’m out

  1. Oh boy, that sounds truly horrible! I think I would have broke down and cried. Ripping out 400st rows, I am speechless. But it’s good it all worked out in the end, and I quite like the different color edging. Nice detail.

  2. Anne, you’ve done EXACTLY the right thing with the alternative colour for the edging. As you said yourself, they made them that way because that was how they happened. Use whatever colours are in your basket at the time was the rule for the knitters then. You just instinctively tapped back into your knowledge tank.

    And how did you like La Droguerie? If you hit it at a quiet time it’s not too bad, at rush hour for ladies who tricoter, it can be hell!
    Jo
    celticmemoryyarns.blogspot.com

  3. Love the edging, but more than that I love the fact that you are human and make mistakes that us simpler knitters make all the time!

  4. I’m so glad it all turned out well in the end!

    I’m not sure if I feel as Mary Jo does, that it’s a relief to the rest of us to learn that you’re human too … or if I am just even more in awe to see how quickly you tore back and motored forth again! Amazing!

  5. This one MAY be my favorite it’s hard to choose….ok,ok, I pick ALL of your shawls….I am so indecisive hahaha

  6. That’s the spirit! The knitting goddess handed you a basket of lemons, and you made a nice frosty pitcher of lemonade from them. 😉

    Let’s see it blocked!

  7. Wow, even though you ran out of yarn, it still looks great and I like the contrast color of yarn as well. Great job and can’t wait to see it all blocked.

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