It occurred to me as soon as I noticed the problems with this piece, that the last thing I had to frog and reknit--Wisteria--was nearly the same shade of blue. Perhaps it's a sign.
Anyway. Here is the new design which I have mentioned on and off--this one was always intended to be self-published, so it doesn't need to be a secret.
That certainly didn't prevent it from being a failure!
Perhaps you're looking at it thinking "But that's pretty!" (At least, I hope so.) It is. There are a lot of things about it that make me quite happy: I like the overall proportion of center to border, I like the wave in the line of yo's where the border starts, I like the way the two pattern stitches work together.
What I do not, not, not like is how the border blocked waaaaaaaaaay tighter than the center and still looks too small. I can't get a straight line along the top edge without creating a dimple at the bottom of the center triangle. I can't get the feathers in the feather-and-fan to be fully straight and parallel to each other. Blocking does not solve everything!
The solution, fortunately, as far as I can tell, is rather simple. I just need to rip out the border and knit it again on larger needles than I used for the center. It doesn't alter my stitch counts, leaving my hard-fought battle with the math for this design in the past. It will use a bit more yarn, being at a bigger gauge, but I barely used any of the last ball before binding off, so I'm confident that I'll have enough.
But the border is ten inches deep! Commence the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I just can't face it yet.
I spent all morning finishing the third clue for the Vernal Equinox KAL--that project, at least, is on track--and then spent most of the rest of the day finishing this. I'm heartbroken. I'd already frogged a partial border once to switch stitch patterns, since my first choice was awkward to work and wasn't turning out the way I wanted. That, of course, is the culprit here--I didn't swatch the feather and fan variant I made up to replace it, so I didn't know it would pull in so much compared to the center pattern
No more knitting today. Maybe even tomorrow. I think it's high time I indulged in some video games!
Wow, you're way more patient that I am..I never touch lace knitting! I think it looks great, but I am the same way, if I am not happy with something, I will frog the entire thing and start over...10 inches of border??? Wow.
ReplyDeleteGo enjoy your video games!