Called It

I did run out of yarn before it was wide enough to fit around my head.  It was looking close, and I really waited until the last row, but it was definitely too narrow.

So I ripped out again, and recalculated the new width, to have the proper length.  Thank God my six grader was there, because rather than just continuing to do trial and error, he suggested the formula.  Since I had the total area that the yarn would create in that needle size, all I had to do was find the new width and length that would equal the same area.  Brilliant!!

So, I am still working on the same cowl, for the third (and hopefully, final) time.

Today, it is a question of whether I am smarter than a sixth grader.

I May Have Adult Onset Knitting ADD

I have had a lot of things going on in my life, and I think that it has pushed me into Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder, at least as far as knitting is concerned.  I have found myself gravitating towards simple knitting.  My teacher mitts, placemats, that sort of thing.  Whenever I come to a part when I actually have to think about it, I find myself sticking it down a little deeper in the knitting bag and ignoring it.

So what is a knitter to do?

Start something new, of course.  In my defense, this is some of the pretty yarn that I bought when my yarn store closed.  (Sniff, yes, I am still in mourning over it.)

I didn't even put this lone hank in the yarn cabinet.  It has spend the last few months snuggled into the knitting bag, tantalizing me.  Begging to be turned into something soft and warm.

I only have one skein, so I really have to be creative.  I found a pretty cowl that called for two strands of worsted weight.  My boucle was aran, so I paired it with an ivory DK, and I figured that about equaled out.

Of course, a wise knitter would have done a swatch, and I have proven once again that decades of knitting experience means nothing when there is a new project tempting you.

Six inches later, I finally had to admit that the fabric was too dense, and was probably not wide enough.

But, with the aforementioned decades of experience, I was smart enough to rip out and start over.  I swatched four different needle sizes, and calculated the gauge for the desired width.  Then completely restarted.

Now that I am nine inches into it again, I am starting to get a little concerned that I will not have enough yarn to get all the way around my head.  So, it is entirely possible that I will have to rip the whole thing out again, and shave a few stitches off the sides.

It is a good thing that I am a process knitter.  And hopefully soon I will be able to tackle complicated knitting again, like short rows and separating a sweater for sleeves, and things like that.

Today it is all about the knitting and the reknitting, and possibly rereknitting.