On the Damson (Damson II, Revenge of the Damson) I was knitting along this afternoon on my way home from work (while listening to Melody Gardot, who is TRULY outstanding, and on sale on iTunes right now) and mentally congratulating myself for having gotten this far and not having any major screw ups yet. I should know by now this is always a dangerous thought process to have, because inevitably... I screw up. Go figure.
I started the lace section and got all the way through the first row when I realized, wow, I sure do have a lot of stitches left over when I got through the repeats, and OOPS, OH CRAP, I totally ignored an entire section of the directions. heh.
Melody Gardot notwithstanding, I was CRANKED THE HECK OUT. (well, that, and I'd had a truly craptacular day at work. Which is going to be the norm for a while)
Here is the Damson as it stands now. Very illustrative picture, no? (that, my friends was sarcasm)
Making my day less crappy is the lovely package I got in the mail today from Webs with the yarn (Cascade Eco Wool) that I ordered a while ago to complete the Francis Revisited. Which is important when we get to the next picture below of the Coraline...
Here is the Coraline as it stands now. I discovered something this morning. I HATE this yarn. Passionately. It's the Drops Alpaca. I am Not. A. Fan. At all. Anybody want somewhere's around 1400 yards of the stuff?
So the Coraline gets frogged. The Drops shall leave my stash one way or another (seriously, if you want it, post a comment and I'll ship it off to you.)
And I shall find another yarn that hopefully I won't hate to knit the Coraline.
Wow. Sorry you had a craptastic day. My craptastic days are coming next week :-(
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, If you wanna ditch the yarn, I'll be happy to take it off your hands :-) I don't suppose you'd like 8 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in Metropolis?
Done! It goes to Kael. Hopefully the arrival of this yarn will make your week next week less craptastic.
ReplyDeleteOoh. It sucks to start a project and discover you loathe the yarn. What did you not like about it, btw?
ReplyDeleteIt feels super soft in the skein, but I don't really like the feel of it after I've knitted with it. I completed two lace projects with it last year and won't wear the one I made for myself because it's very itchy. (at least to me). Also, this yarn is 100% alpaca, and it has zero memory, so you basically have to block it every time you wear it. I'm not a fan.
ReplyDeleteI recently made that other alpaca scarf out of plymouth yarns baby alapca grande and it's MUCH softer than the Drops.
Anyway, the Drops is ok when used for more open projects, but the stockinette stitch for this sweater was just awful using this yarn. So that would be a big fat FAIL.
But who knows. Kael may adore this stuff. :)
I have only knitted with Drops alpaca once, for felted mittens, and that worked out nicely. Very warm and comfy mittens :-) My experience is that the alpaca I purchase from the US is way better than the alpaca I can buy in Norway. But we have some awesome pure wool (itchy, but the best lol)Hope your knittings will make nothing but progress from now on :-)
ReplyDeleteWe all have crappy days, and they suck! Does it take a lot to fix Damson? I'm decluttering my house at the moment, and I just dropped of a huge plastic bag full of yarn I don't want to use, never will. Life's too short to deal with stuff we don't like. I hope the Alpace yarn I have in my stash will be nice to work with. It's Baby Alpaca, and feels quite soft. Anyway good luck finding another yarn you really like for your project!
ReplyDeleteI so don't like itchy!! And I had the opposite experience with Zauberball. I cussed at it all through the sock knitting process -- it split, it twisted, it un-twisted, and it felt rough, not soft. When one sock was finished, I put it on my foot ... and OMG ... it was the most comfortable sock I've ever had on my foot! Those socks went to my mom, so I've since bought 2 more balls to make some for me!!!
ReplyDeleteMy clever plan is to find something to make that will negate the itchiness. Don't know what yet, but I'll keep ya posted :-)
ReplyDelete