rip & redo

From the beginning, I had a bad feeling. I gauge-swatched, I really did. Maybe the light was dim while I was reading the little window in the ruler... whatever the case, shortly after this photo of Delanna was taken, I tried her on again, this time with the critical eye that had somehow eluded me during previous fittings. Too big. WAY too big.

I re-checked the gauge. Guess what? The gauge was 4.5 stitches to the inch - not 5. And you know, I really didn't like how the cast-on edge looked, and the lace panel was a little too narrow, and... so I ripped her all out.

Sometimes the little plastic ball-winder can be your best friend. In the days before I owned this gadget, frogging was so depressing. After an hour of tearing apart a lovely knitted garment, you'd find yourself covered in a shapeless pile of yarn guts, ready to tangle into a million unworkable snarls at the slightest provocation, adding insult to injury. With the ball-winder you can detatch yourself from the destruction, simply turing a little handle and watching the garment simultaneously unraveling and transforming into neat little cakes of raw material, ready to be knitted again.

So anyway, with the help of the ball-winder and moral support from Paloma (who also had a major frogging event recently), Delanna became yarn cakes. Over the weekend I cast on again and as of Tuesday morning I'm almost back to the point where the carnage began. The fit is much better this time, and the design flaws corrected. If she comes out well I'll post the pattern on a Free Pattern Friday some time.

Meanwhile, the big feline haps this week is a new favorite nap spot, A.K.A. HWWLLB's spot on the couch. He must have softened it up.


yarn carnage be damned - it's nap time.