Friday, 27 March 2015

My Nine Cheery Teeny Tiny Maidens. . .

Well, I had a lot of fun knitting my Nine Maidens shawl by Lucy Hague.  I enjoyed the challenge and seeing the cables build up.  However, I was so excited to start this while I was still in Scotland that I grabbed what I thought were the required 4mm needles.  Alas, they were not.



They were 3.5mm and thus the shawl has come out considerably smaller than intended. I am kicking myself after all that work!!!!


In fact, I can't really call it a shawl.  It's more like a curvy scarf but not as long as I'd like a scarf to be either.



Since I loved my cheery yellow stitch markers so much and they looked great against this Old Maiden Aunt merino in the fabulous colourway  Greige (what a brilliant idea to pair gray and beige together!), I decided to do the contrast crochet trim in some Madeline Tosh.


Love the yarn, love the pattern, don't love the size. What to do?  The other disappointment is that despite some aggressive blocking, the top edge curls, making it even shallower.


I'm toying with two options.  One: I could start it all over again with the correct size needles.  Two: I could try and pick up the stitches on the edge and knit some more rows (adding some garter stitch to try and stop the curling) and that might add more depth.  I could also add more rows of crochet trim to the bottom. It's not a fix I'm going to attempt right away; I may just leave it as one big swatch, although I love the wool so much that I really want to use it for a shawl I'll actually wear.

At any rate, this project has re-ignited my love for grellow.  I've scrapped this version of Philomena (too bright and the ruching is just too flamboyant for my tastes)


And started again.


And with all the cabling practice I got with my Maidens, this Beatnik jumper is coming along nicely and doesn't scare me so much. 


It's spring, I'm having fun with my knitting, it's all good.

2 comments:

life ldc said...

If everything worked out as planned...how boring it would be :) I love your attitude....I get rather cranky when things don't work out.....much older and crankier than you :)

Blithe Spirit said...

Oh, I was cranky myself at first, but hey, there's always the next project. . .