Knitting Disappointments

Nobody knits to create stress. Unfortunately, things outside of our control can quickly take knitting from relaxing to infuriating.

First, I had the worst time ever choosing yarn for Levenwick. I'm usually pretty decisive about these things, so not being able to select a yarn, let alone a color, was mind-boggling. After purchasing a few sweater quantities (which will all be put to good use), I finally settled on the recommended yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Homemade Jam.

This brings me to my second piece of stress. As much as I love the tweedy shades and wooly hand of this yarn, I just can't get over the sheer quantity of vegetable matter (or VM, as we say in the biz)! For those not in the know, VM is the general term for hay, wood, and other goodies that may make it into your yarn from the fleece. While I can tolerate a little bit of VM (sheep aren't the cleanest animals, after all), I cannot justify spending a pretty penny on yarn that is absolutely ravaged by it. Here's how much I pulled out of less than half a skein:

When I contacted Brooklyn Tweed about this, they were sincerely apologetic and offered to replace my yarn in the same dye lot. Hooray! Except when I received the yarn, it had just as much VM as my old skeins. Sigh. So now I'm knitting a sweater in yarn that is making me very angry, but I can't let myself admit defeat. I worked too hard to select this yarn, dammit.

And finally, here's my last disappointment. I ordered 3 skeins of yarn for my Peaks Island Hood, but only 2 were available. That means I'll have to wait until at least Monday, maybe Tuesday, to get the yarn and start the project. I guess that gives me more time to begrudgingly trudge through Levenwick, right?

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I can focus on enjoying my knitting (no matter how much VM I must pluck from it). Maybe I'll cast on a beautiful shawl for myself to make up for my recent string of annoyances. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.

Snapdragon: Problems & Design Elements

Sorry for the long radio silence! We WLKALers have been feverishly knitting our Rhinebeck sweaters, but it looks like only I've finished so far! That means it's on to the next project: Snapdragon Tam. While this pattern looks very complicated, it's super fast and easy to knit. Most of the cables are simple 1x2 or 2x2, so they're extremely easy to do without a cable needle.

I'm using the recommended yarn (Madelinetosh Tosh DK) in the new French Grey colorway. As you can see, it takes on a purple tone in certain light, but other times it's a perfectly neutral gray. I love the depth and complexity of the hue. I'm pleasantly surprised that the tonal variegation isn't disrupting the patterning. For the record, I'm knitting the medium size with size 5 (ribbing/band) and size 7 needles.

While the pattern has been flying off my needles, I have come across two little snags. The first is literal: my Hiya-Hiya interchangeable needle cable is super pointy on one side and won't stop unscrewing on the other. This has led to some major snaggage on both side. I've already replaced all 4 of my Hiya-Hiya cables due to malfunction, so I simply refuse to invest more money in this set. Thankfully, my wonderful mother is getting me a different needle set for Christmas, so I only have a few months to wait. I'll try not to complain too much.

My second problem was, as always, user error. As an advanced knitter, I often assume that I know what I'm doing without reading a pattern row completely. My knitting hubris got the best of me when I worked the first row of slip 1, knit 2, pass slipped stitch over as sk2p. I fixed this easily and then vowed to read the pattern more carefully, which I did do...until rounds 25-29. I only worked one round of this repeat, which I didn't realize until 10+ rounds later. That means that my second row of buds is shorter than my other ones. While I could have added a lifeline and ripped back, I decided that I was fine with my tiny buds. We'll call it a design element to differentiate my tam from the others.