My Yarn Hates Me

I wrote last time about the insane difficulty I'm having with some gorgeous fuzzy lace yarn. I've restarted the shawl/scarf project multiple times as I keep making mistakes. At last I decided to keep going regardless of mistakes, as it's so fuzzy and so many yarn-overs that (I hope) no one can tell there are a million errors.

But I do find working on it frustrating, so I only do a few rows at a time, then go to something else for a while. I wanted to find a yarn and pattern to work on that wouldn't be so difficult, so I chose to pull out something I'd put aside years ago, half-done. It's called the Mitred Square Vest, and with worsted yarn and made out of mitred squares, it IS pretty simple. You can check it out here:

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/delisi/mitered-square-vest

Or if you're not on Ravelry (and why AREN'T you on Ravelry ?), here's a picture.

It worked fairly well with minimal mistakes. So why am I upset? Because it came out HUGE. I made the size that shoud have fit me well, but as always, I didn't do a gauge swatch. Have never done them, so from time to time a project comes out too big or too small. I have no one to blame but myself.

This habit came about when I was young, and had a minimal budget for yarn. So I would buy the exact amount I needed for a project, not purchasing extra for a gauge swatch. Most of the time, that didn't cause trouble.

But this project required me to buy extra yarn to finish it, only to have it come out two sizes too large. I could rip it out and start over, but I would end up going crazy doing that. So I will try to find someone it WILL fit to give it to, and start something new.

Something that with any luck, will include yarn that likes me. Sniffle!

Winning the War With My Yarn

I've been knitting since I was five years old, and most of that time, I've been able to knit easily and with minimal mistakes. I made afghans, sweaters, hats, scarves, shawls, headbands, bags, and anything else I found. I even convinced some of my teachers in high school to let me knit during class, if we were watching a movie or just having a dialogue.

But lately it seems all I can knit is mistakes. If there were a trophy for the most mistakes in one project, or the most frogged project, I'd win hands down.

A lot of things are to blame. First is not matching the project to the type of knitting needle: material it's made of, the shape and sharpness of the tips, and the type of yarn. Second is the yarn...is it fuzzy? Hard to work with? Slippery? Is it loosely plied? Third, is the project too complex for me, or will it frustrate me with charts (I hate charts)? And finally, a chunk of the blame lands on my shoulders because as I get older, I naturally get slower, have more difficulty concentrating, and a lower boredom threshhold.

Take, for example, the Madeira Wine Lace Shawl. You can get an idea of what it looks like here:

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/delisi/madeira-wine

Keep in mind there are a lot of mistakes in there!

And here's the yarn: https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/valley-yarns-southampton Gorgeous, isn't it? But with a high fuzz factor. Still, I was determined to use it.

And these are the needles I settled on after trying three kinds: https://www.interweave.com/store/bryspun-flexible-10-single-point-needle

After a few rows, I was off in my stitch count, so I frogged it. (Frog only if you have all the time and patience in the world. It's darned hard to get those fuzzy stitches apart.) So I started over. After a few rows, another mistake. Virtually impossible to fix a mistake without ripping it out. Each time I ripped it out, I swore I was going to burn the yarn and walk away. I even threatened to never knit again and never do anything that takes two brain cells, just sit on the couch and watch TV for the rest of my life.

But as I reached a certain number of rows after frog #5, I decided  to keep knitting this time  regardless of mistakes. Yet I had to do something about those mistakes...the only trouble is, what?

Finally, I made up an unorthodox method of "fixing" things for when the stitch count is off. I just knit all the way across one row, adding or subtracting stitches evenly spaced across the row, till the count is correct. Then I go back to the regular pattern.  This only works reasonably well because the extreme fuzziness of the yarn disguises the mistakes.

I'm determined to win the war with this yarn, no matter how many mistakes I make or how long it takes. Do you have a project like that in your stash? Do share!