The past couple of weeks have been hectic, to say the least and my “me” time has suffered a bit for it. We went to a lovely wedding on Saturday and this is the pashmina that accompanied me.
Yes, I said pashmina. Bought at The Bay. Yes, there was supposed to be a shrug, quickly yet lovingly crocheted by my own hand (see a previous post). The shrug betrayed me.
I worked diligently on it, even while entertaining company, but it wouldn’t cooperate. Okay, the shrug itself isn’t to blame, though reviews on the pattern were littered with complaints. It was the dratted yarn! The colorway was lovely and it has a wonderfully soft, warm hand, but I can’t crochet with it! It’s krinkly, like hair that’s been finely braided then released, and it’s plied with a number of fine threads and all of this seems to make it impossible to get a crochet hook into – especially when it’s a 9 mm hook. I started out with 110 stitches and merrily hooked along for a half-dozen rows before counting again. 90 stitches …. hmmm. I’d obviously skipped a few somewhere (?) so I added them back in at intervals and carried on. Next count gave me 120. How did THAT happen? And so it went. Every few rows, stitches came and went. I knew though that I could block the whole thing into shape once I was done and no one (except you) would be the wiser. I seemed to be having trouble crocheting through the back loop only, what with the yarn unplying with each stab of the hook, so I started crocheting through both loops and that fixed the problem. I maintained my 105 stitches without any more problems. I reached the halfway point on Wednesday and needed to hurry if I was going to have time to block it and sew the armholes by Saturday noon. Of course, I forgot that I started with 110 stitches. There was a definite pyramid-like jag along both edges of “This thing”, as the shrug became known and I was pretty sure that no amount of blocking was going to fix it. It did cross my mind that maybe the armholes would be sewn along the worst part, but I couldn’t risk it. I set the work aside while I went shopping for a replacement ….. then came home and did this to it.
I’m still doing this, as the yarn has knotted in spots and needs to be cut; it’s very frustrating. I’ll never crochet with this yarn again, but I think it’ll knit pretty well. I’ve picked out a couple of shawl patterns. I’ll have to wait and see how things turn out.
In the meantime, to help me get over this disaster that shall no longer be mentioned, I started these:
The pattern, Lacy Mock Cable Socks, was found online at scarlettknits. I’m using Paton’s Kroy Socks FX in Copper Colors (you’d think a Canadian company would spell “colors” correctly!) It’s my first foray into “real” sock yarn and I love it! Self-patterning was a good start but I wanted texture as well; it’s very easy and is working up quickly and the yarn is stretchier than I expected. I swatched to 3 mm dpn’s and have 2 sets, so I’ve started to work both socks at once, switching needles sets at “landmark” intervals. I hope to be finished both by the time company arrives on Saturday.
Annethologist 