Saturday, July 02, 2005

Dilemma

So several weeks ago I started this Evening in Eden shawl with some Berroco Softwist that I had bought on sale many many moons ago. I figured that the yarn was a pretty colour and the right weight, and the pattern wasn't bad, so why not? Except now I've made it through half the shawl and....well, I sort of hate it. Well, hate is perhaps too strong a word, but I am certainly not overflowing with affection and goodwill towards this particular knitted item.

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Why do I dislike it? Well, for starters, the pattern, while interesting and easy enough to knit, does not call out to me. At first I thought, hey, look at the cute paw-print-like things! But now I'm thinking, paw prints? Why am I knitting paw prints?! Secondly, the yarn, it is slippery and splitty. I've mostly managed to avoid splitting the yarn, but when it splits, it's rather irritating. Additionally, I realized about 3 (48-row) repeats in that I somehow thought "garter stitch edging" meant "do it in stockinette!" and now my edges are all curly. At the time I didn't want to rip out the whole thing just to fix the edging, but now it's staring me in the face and mocking me for my stupidity.

So, what do I do? Do I rip out the whole thing? Do I throw it in the closet never to look at it again? Or do I suck it up and make a slightly shorter version of the shawl, with 6 repeats instead of 7, and leave it at that? I think I have 8 or 9 skeins of this yarn, not quite enough to make a sweater (not that I would want to even if I did, the yarn was cheap and a reasonable colour, but I bought it during my reckless-yarn-buying stage, and I don't love it by any means), so if it's not going to be this shawl, I don't think it's going to become anything else. I'm leaning towards just making the shortest shawl I can get away with and moving on to something else.


I think I'm more of a process knitter, I enjoy trying new things and watching them take shape much more than actually having the finished product (I've lost interest in most of the things I've finished). So if I don't consider the project (or the yarn) fun/interesting/beautiful my patience drops considerably. Just another example of my fickle nature, I guess.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Hmm...that is a dilemma. If you did finish the shawl, would you actually wear it? Would you give it away? Personally, I don't think the pattern is that bad, but if you're not liking it, it's better not to have something around that you don't like. Maybe you could rip it and make a cute little tank top instead? It wouldn't be bad if you made a shorter shawl either, but it would be a shame if it just sat around, unused and unloved. *shrug* I dunno...that's a tough call.

Anonymous said...

My name is Carol and I have a cat named Gunther and my sugar is low poo poo boom boom.

Adrienne said...

Well, I sucked it up and finished the shawl, and it is all blocked and fringed and ready for its photo shoot. Pictures and more words to come soon.

BTW, "anonymous" above is Andrew, who, as usual, was being obnoxious. =)