Sunday, January 17, 2016

Bust the Stash: Finished Object 1 - Mirri Cowl

I don't know when it happened that "Bust the Stash" got a bit "who cares what goes wrong, I'm forging ahead" - but that's kind of where I landed with the Mirri Cowl. Do not misunderstand. It's a great pattern - so much so that I'm casting it on for the second time in about 10 minutes but, Lord, how did all everything go wrong?:
  • Twisted the stitches on the second row but didn't realize it until the 5th. At that point, the idea of re-casting on 280 stitches (my modified number) for a third time (first time failed) really wasn't appealing. Of course, I neglected to consider that this cowl has a right-side and a wrong-side to the fabric. Not exactly seed stitch... So a twist in the cowl means one is destined to see the wrong side of the fabric in some places at any given moment. Mind you, once you double wrap a cowl around your neck, that happens anyway...
  • Ran out of yarn. I predicted (with math) that I'd have 5 g of yarn remaining at the end, but that's because I subtracted incorrectly. Doesn't help that I understand all of the complex ways to determine sizing if I can't subtract for shit. I actually ran out of yarn 3/4 of the way through the bind off. Twice. First time, on realizing I was short yarn, I ripped back 10 rows (to maintain the integrity of the lace pattern), subtracted a knit row and also subtracted one of the rib rows at the end. (That go round, I was short about half a row.) Second time I was short a third of a row (though it makes no sense because I cut an extra row?!?!). I used some white Koigu in my stash, held double, to approximate the weight and feel of the more robust Quince Finch. It looks strangely intentional but the first time I tried to finish the bind off with this yarn I realized how weedy it looked with just a strand, hence my work-around, holding the yarn double on the second try. I was out of alternatives cuz there was no way I was ripping back 15 rows, on the third try, to shorten this pattern by yet another row. I'd been burned twice and it shouldn't have been an issue even once!
  • Clinging to the idea that I'd have enough yarn to finish the bind off with the just the Finch, I cut every tail (usually I weave them in after knitting new yarn in) and tied the tails with double knots to the yarn end. My desperate aim was to eke out the enough yardage with a last few yards held together with knots - way to compromise the integrity of the work. In my life have I never done this.
  • Not to mention that, right out of the gate, I messed with the pattern by making this piece shorter than (fewer stitches in the circumference - which, it turns out, is no issue as regards the finished length) and narrower than (less optimal but still ok) the pattern calls for in the larger size.
On the plus side, I don't have one fucking yard of yarn remaining and, while blocking, I can see that my errors are going to be invisible to anyone who wears this. Here's a little shot of it as it blocks:

Mirri Cowl Take 1 - you can see my yarn disaster work-around on the top left of the scarf (in the bind off row). That's Koigu held double finishing the cowl.
I'll show you how it looks, once dry, and we can decide how it turned out.

Gotta say, my next version will be started from scratch until I don't twist the stitches - whether that takes one time or more. And that second version will be made with 2x the yardage that I used to make this one, so there's no way I'll run out.

Thoughts or feelings?

1 comment:

  1. It's going to make a gorgeous gift! And unless you alert the giftee to this post, she's never going to have any idea it's less than perfect.
    And you've busted a significant piece of stash. Go you!

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