There's Something About Clapotis
I do so love hand dyed yarn. But sometimes it does gives you surprises. Once again, my camera tells a story that my eyes didn't see.
Can You Spot the Second Problem?
Yup. The second skein is darker than the first skein. I'm not really all that disturbed by this, because when this scarf knit on the bias is wrapped around my neck it's not going to be so easy to see.
Can you spot her second problem? This one has nothing to do with yarn and everything to do with my ability to count. One of those stockinette regions between the dropped stitches is composed of 6 stitches instead of 5. I didn't notice this problem until I got to the decreasing across this region and realized that I needed one more decrease than I should have needed to get to the point where I was dropping a stitch. To fix it I would have had to rip back almost to the beginning. Um, Sorry, No. Not for something that curves around on itself. I'm invoking the galloping horse rule here and moving on.
There's one final problem -- one that you probably won't be able to see from the picture. The first skein of yarn got me through the increases and about 2 intervals of straight knitting. The second skein got me almost through 7 more intervals. The problem? I have 4 more straight intervals to go before the decreasing component -- in other words, I'm short by about 2 intervals. This is a little surprising since my gauge is pretty close. Even after I changed from the grippy bamboo needles to the nice slick Inox that I stole from Fitzgerald.
BummerBummerBummer. What's a girl to do?
Send off a quick email to her favorite fiber enabler, of course, and cross her fingers and hope she's built up some good karma. And then wait.
I lucked out completely this time -- ThreadBear had one last skein of this dye lot lurking in their bins. I won't be finishing Clapotis this weekend, but at least I'll be able to get her finished. I'm a very happy camper!
What will I do with all that extra yarn? Well, I'm beginning to wonder what Clapotis might look like if she had some fringe...now that I've done my multi-directional scarf, I think I have fringe on the brain.
Want to see another Clapotis in progress with a different kind of yarn? Silvia's doing her "Clapper" in a Morehouse Merino lace weight yarn. Completely different look, completely lovely.
Galloping horse time. There was no way you could have alternated the skeins in this scarf design, so it is what it is. I kind of like the variegation.
I have an entire afghan that ended up with non-matching dye-lots. It's from my early days of knitting, and made of good ol' Lion Brand Thick n Quick chenille in a wonderful, very dark purple color. Though I checked all dye lots, I suspect that two of the skeins got pulled out of their wrappers and put back in the wrong ones, because there are two stripes that clearly don't match. Yes, they're not even together. I didn't notice it until it was finished, since I mostly knit it at night, while watching movies. There was no such thing as ripping it out (reference earlier comment about early days of knitting, plus chenille yarn...), and so the stripes stand. They are now referred to as a design element, and the afghan is not loved any less. For your amusement, it is here: http://homepage.mac.com/aeberinger/Knitting/PhotoAlbum20.html
Two things I thought you might like to know:
1. I have been a knitting-blog-addict for a couple of years now and regularly and often visit every knitting-blog I can find. I have never, however, come across anything as beautiful as your lace Diva jacket. No lie.
2. The MultiDirectional Scarf pattern has always been one of my least favorite patterns--until I came across your version. Beautiful!
Sorry if this sounds mushy and gushy, but ya' do nice work!
Oh my. I have to say ditto to Ryan's comment. You do indeed do the nicest work, and I always learn something when I visit you. When ya coming back to Threadbear? :)
T, neither of those problems is really noticeable. Which means, they aren't really problems! Let's just call them slight differences that make your Clapper even more special.
P.S. I saw Bruce Almighty last night on DVD, and when Morgan Freeman sang "Clap on, Clap off, the Clapper!" I thought of you and Silvia.
I like the variation of the light to dark, though I didn't notice it in the photo til you pointed it out. I like the yarn you've chosen, very pretty and will look nice on you. I like this pattern very much, am thinking of using the sport weight natural musk colored alpaca for my very own Clapper (the Morehouse one is a gift). A good use for alpaca in California to my mind.