Wednesday, February 23, 2011

WIP Wednesday

The problem with having a Monday off from work is that Tuesday then feels like Monday, causing me to completely forget to get a WIP Wednesday post ready. And thus, today I'm posting it much later than usual.

A Girl’s Best Friend shawl is almost completely finished. I’m done with the knitting; all I need to do is weave in the ends and block it. Right now, it kind of looks like a pink blobby tube, but I’m hoping that the blocking will even out some of those curling edges. I love the way the colors blended together, though. The color repeats are so short that there wasn’t really any pooling to worry about.

I’ve put some more work into the Monkey socks. I finished the twisted ribbing and am 3.5 repeats into the leg. These socks are taking me forever to finish, but that’s because I’m working on them between other projects. Doing it little bits at a time seems to be staving off Second Sock Syndrome so far; we’ll see if that continues.

I’ve cast on for two Revontuli shawls this week. Why two? Well…Patons Lace has failed me. I cast on with Patons Lace in the Porcelain colorway. Firstly, I was not thrilled about the fact that, rather than fading from white to blue, it was really splotchy.

This interferes with the crisp zig-zags the Revontuli normally is supposed to create between colors. However, I was willing to overlook this and soldier on…until halfway through the second chart. I was innocently knitting along when….the yarn wouldn’t come off the skein. Thinking I had a tangle, I looked more closely, and (*sob*) saw a big glob of glue on the skein, gluing most of the rest of the dark blue color together. I considered peeling it off, but it’s pretty stuck on there, and the yarn is so fuzzy that I’m afraid pulling at the glue will mess it up.

I posted in the 11 Shawls in 2011 Ravelry group and sent a polite email to Patons, expressing my disappointment. Ravelry suggested I freeze the yarn in hopes that the glue would get more brittle and chip off (which was a great idea, but didn’t work). Patons sent me an auto-response and still hasn’t gotten back to me with a real reply.

I’m going to try to soak the gluey spot in water and see if I can dissolve some of the glue that way, but for now, I needed to take a step away from the Patons Lace. I put the live stitches on some waste yarn, set it aside, and cast on again with Kauni.

I’ve pretty much caught up to where I was on Version 1. The Kauni color changes are nice, but the yarn is kind of scratchy and the weight is really inconsistent. When I cast on, it was more like a lace-weight (causing me to go down a needle size from the recommended 9), but now it’s more of a fingering weight. However, I am determined to finish at least one Revontuli!

7 comments:

  1. WOW, you've been busy! I love all of your projects, but especially the Kauni yarn

    ReplyDelete
  2. So sorry to hear about your yarn incident! That is the oddest thing. I hope that you can find a way to fix it. Your version 2 is looking very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, that is a bummer about the yarn. Hope Patons gets back to you soon and is appropriately sorry for the grief they've caused. The kauni is looking great, though. Maybe it will soften up once it's been blocked? Fingers crossed for you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That Girl's Best Friend shawl is very pretty. Sorry you are having troubles with the yarn, I've never heard of such a thing.
    I'm glad you were able to restart the Revontuli though. I picked up a copy of that pattern last weekend, and now yours is the second one I've seen in WIP Wednesday posts. Maybe it's a sign that I will have to try it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would have been furious about the Patons Lace -- iffy color transitions might have been understandable, but glue in the middle of it is just ridiculous. I'm sorry you lost the time you put into Revontuli #1. The yarn you chose for the 2nd one is very nice though.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, so much knitting! The Patons Lace yarn would have made me completely furious. Stepping away for a while is probably the best idea. And the Kaumi colors are quite pretty, so that's a bit of consolation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. i love the kauni color you are using:) it will probably even out after blocking, at least visually? :)

    ReplyDelete