If at First You Don’t Succeed.

I just love the color way and feel of this Queensland Collection Perth in Bay of Fires yarn. Please be forewarned that this yarn might not be in your local yarn shop anymore.  The explanation is quite simple really. I tried five different patterns with this yarn. The yarn was not happy with the previous patterns.  It was really saying I know what I want to be. You are not understanding what I want.  So after each failure the whole project bag was put in timeout.  Yes, sometimes yarn does need a time out.  Maybe, I just did not know what to do with the yarn.  

I need to start a different UFO,  I have completed 3 projects in 2 days. I still have to make time to take the pictures. I believe I am up to 5 pictures that need to be taken. It has been crazy busy since we got home from our last family trip. 

Well last night everything changed.  I tried knitting the project that was on the knitting needles.  The yarn said no.  So I frogged the work.  Using U.S. size 10 1/2 knitting needles and not the recommended U.S. size 1 to 3 knitting needles I charged ahead using a slightly different cast on count of My Doodling Shawl pattern, available on Ravelry.  By the third row the yarn was sing, she finally got me.  So I kept knitting until I needed a longer knitting needle.  Believe it or not I did not have a circular knitting needle in 10.5 by 60 inches long.  So out came the LYKKE interchangeable knitting needles to the rescue.  By the way don’t the copper knitting needles look good with the yarn?  

I don’t know how big the shawl will be.  I have 3 skeins of Bay of Fire at 437 yards each. Again I think the shawl will make the decision for me. This should make a great summer weight shawl for those cold places. 

The 3rd Time Was The Charm

 Let me start off by saying that I was having a very bad dyslexic day.   So starting a new pattern was not my best idea ever.  The words and numbers were jumping all around the page.   Somehow my mind translated “Size 9/5.5mm” into Size 11. Don’t ask, I would not be able to explain it.  So I started with U.S. size 11 and the knitting did not match the picture.  So I went down to U.S. size 10, but luckily I moved my pink marking tape over that one line, totally by accident.  I was able to save the second cast on and just replace the needle tips.  Luckily I was using my LYKKE interchangeable knitting needles.  

Because I was having such a hard day with numbers, I put a stitch marker after evert 10 cast on stitches until I got the right amount of stitches   I highly recommend this when adding more the 25 stitches to a project   

So now the next row is 5.   I love the pattern “Hermosa Tee” by Grace Akhrem.  The yarn I am using is Alumco in color 10 by Araucania Yarns. If your local yarn shop does not carry this yarn you can always use my favorite local yarn shop, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel. They have a new on line store too.  

My progress so far.  

P.S. I would like to make a personal recommendation to pattern designers and yarn companies with the fore knowledge that every Millimeter on the pattern page counts. By adding just two spaces you could make a pattern so much easier to read. For example instead of 9/5.5mm, try 9 / 5.5mm. You can see the correct knitting needle size right away. I know that this is a decades old industry standard most likely set up when print pages were set by typesetters.  Now that most everything is done electronically this should be very easy to accomplish.  This is my 2 cents worth on the subject.  Thank You for listening.  Have a wonderful day.