My Must Have

Palm Blog... 3/19/05
My Must Have pattern arrived on Friday (of course the day after I finally gave up and contacted customer service in search of its whereabouts). Having been feeling a bit in the dumps, or at least a bit stagnant, about my knitting, especially in the face of the mini heat wave we've been having (and heat makes me miserable), it was with great excitement that I tore into the box.

In addition to the Street Smart booklet, I picked up another Koigu scarf/shawl pattern (which I would make bigger), a crocheted poncho pattern that caught my eye in the catalog, and two skeins of Koigu to make Matthew's Ninja hat (since the one I made him reinforced a valuable lesson about cables and gauge and fits little brother).

I originally ordered the two skeins as extras. When I started Matthew's hat, I wasn't sure 1 would be enough - especially since cabling tends to eat yarn. So I ordered 2 thinking that would give me an extra if needed, or two matching for something else if they were not needed. As it turns out, I'll be using both of them for his hat. But that's a good thing because I hadn't realized how dramatically different Koigu can colorways can be between dye lots. The skeins in the box look almost nothing like the original one I was using. The new ones are still beautiful, but more turquoise rather than lime. I even went fishing for the original label to make sure I had ordered the right color. Indeed, I had.

Ironically, the same issue came up with the Woolpak I'm using (from stash) for my Must Have. We have two colorways although we've forgotten whose was whose originally. So I've been trying to decide which to use. Once I realized, with some surprise, that it will only take four hanks (or a tad more), then it was clear I could use either. I was leaning toward the darker of the two (it's just speaking to me), but I went searching in the much-in-need-of-stash-reorganization basement for each colorway to make sure I could put my hands on the right quantity of each.

I found both, and with the darker, I found a hank of what I thought was the 'other' colorway. Looking at it in the murky basement light, I was drawn to its vibrant, intense, almost hyper-color quality. Looking at the streaks of purple and pink in what is basically an earth-tone scheme, I couldn't believe I was even considering the darker colorway. But when I got it upstairs, I realized it wasn't a match. Vaguely, we remember M. buying a hank or two of it at a later date for some other project. Ironically, I checked, and the colorway is the same. Just different dye lots.

So, after much debate, I decided to plunge ahead with the darker colorway - recognizing, of course, that I'm not certain how the cabling will show up.

I thought I was all set to start, but my entrée into this pattern was far from clear-cut. Prior to securing a copy of the pattern, I had monitored the knitalong blog enough to know that there was some issue with matching up the ribbing to the cables. So, ready to cast on, I headed out there to get the down and dirty. Hours later, I was pacing the house in confusion over correcting the ribbing for the front (where I was planning to start), and trying to sort out the cables that need to be flipped, the problem with the Irish Moss on the sleeve, and my own concerns with the sizing. Mostly, the ribbing and sizing were on my mind. I drafted a message to SequinK asking for advice on the ribbing, but I felt too lame to send it feeling certain the answer was obvious - or else really subjective and so I should just move forward.. Finally, I charted my ribbing and cast on, though I was still concerned with having only 1 knit at the ends rather than 3. I couldn't foresee it mattering, but I worried I was missing some reason it might matter in terms of how the button band juxtaposes to the ribbing. I cast on pre-dinner.

Post-dinner, still worried about sizing, ease, sudden change in my chest size, and the altered ribbing, I pulled out the handful of rows I'd done and re-cast, opting to simply increase each front by 2 stitches. I think I'm all set now. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to establish the cables tomorrow - and get a good look at how this yarn plays out.

Of course, I first have to attend a 'housekeeping party' at the preschool. Did I mention that our auction was very successful? No. I know I didn't. My knitting spirit was bruised by the fact that my Clapotis got no bids. The knitted ponchos, hats, and felted bags did well, as did my painted stools. But Clapotis was ignored. I'm not sure what her fate will be at the follow-up school-only mini auction for items that didn't sell (I'm having a Rudolphian Land of Misfit Toys moment), but it was sad to see her hanging unnoticed and unappreciated that night.