Frogging... Ah, Crap!!!

A friend and I had this great idea to do a knit along (KAL). Isn't that how it always starts out? Well, I should have known this was cursed from the start.

We chose the all-(north)american hoodie from Knitting Green. (A great book, by the way) You can check out the pattern here on Ravelry. And since we had a hard time finding the yarn it called for ~ when do you EVER find the yarn a pattern calls for without spending an arm and a leg??? ~ we decided to use Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton. You hold it double stranded and use big needles, or so we thought. (See where I'm headed with this? Cursed project...)

So, we cast on with our #10 needles and whoa, mama, it's freakin' huge!!! Time to start doing swatches. I know what you're thinking, should have done the swatches first. Yeah, but admit it already, no one does swatches unless they have to or unless they've had a bad experience. I finally hit gauge with #8 needles. Hurrah! Recast on and start all over again.

Continuing on, I work on this sweater for a month or so and I can't help but feel like it's well, HUGE. But, I'm knitting at gauge. I did the swatch. Right? I'm cool. But still it's eating at me. WTF? Why is this thing so damn big? Did I just chose the wrong size? But I just keep going along.

So finally yesterday in knitting class I mention to my knitting teaching that I have this sinking suspicion that my sweater is ginormous. Well, those weren't my exact words, but it was something along those lines. She gets out the tape measure and guess what? It's 56 inches around. Let me describe myself for you just so you can get an accurate picture of this. I wear a size 8 or 10. So yeah, I could wear the sweater with a friend or perhaps when I'm 10 or 11 months pregnant. Oh, wait, you give birth at 9 months, scratch that last one.

Bugger! Almost two full hanks of yarn knitted. And I'm going to go rip it all out. Does anyone else cry when they frog something??

I mean this is completely my own stupid fault. I should have measured it WEEKS ago. I don't know WHAT I was thinking. Obviously, not thinking...

Then, feel the excitement in my voice, I get to start all over AGAIN. My knitting teacher thinks the needle size is right, but I should just cast on the smallest size on the pattern. Bright side? It should go much faster with so many fewer stitches?

What do I really want to do? Scrap the whole thing for now and start on a Madelinetosh project. But did I mention that this is a KAL? I need to be K'ingAL. And my knitting buddy is the nicest person on the planet. She's offered to help me knit the sleeves to help me keep up on the KAL. I know, NICEST person on the planet.

Nothing left to do but get frogging and recast... And for god's sake measure the damn thing!!

For the Love of Madelinetosh

So, I'm a sucker for hand dyed yarns.

A few years back I went absolutely gaga for Three Irish Girls.

Before that it was Artyarns.

But those were my variegated days.

I've moved on.

Matured.

Or something like that.

I got direction. I started getting the idea that buying yarn for the sake of just having the yarn was a little silly. That maybe you needed projects to go with the yarn.

Dangerous path. And then something else happened.

Oh yeah. I married well. I got disposable income.

Dangerous stuff that is.

Suddenly a $20 skein of yarn isn't completely out of reach. Why not buy 5?

Seriously?

What on earth makes me believe I am EVER going to knit that sweater? When all evidence points to the contrary, what on EARTH makes me believe??? And I live in TEXAS for god's sake!

So, I'm here to say that I have an addiction. It's an addiction to Madelinetosh yarn. Yes, the colorways are amazing. And it's just so soft and squishy. IT'S SO FLUFFY I COULD JUST DIE!!! Or something like that. And I can't even tell you how wonderful it is to work with because I'm forcing myself to finish at least one of my current sweater projects before I can start one of my Madelinetosh projects.

Yes, it's completely possible that the Madelinetosh yarn will be so amazing that I will knit right through the project and finish it right away, but who are we kidding. I have enough UFOs to fill area 51 twenty times over.

Okay, maybe not, but you get my point.

Discipline is what I need. No more Tosh. We'll see how long I can keep that up. So far I have an Earl Grey shawl, a Vanilla Bean cardigan and a Filigree short sleeve sweater waiting in the wings. Let's hope they don't get lonely...