We’ve all had knitting misadventures and I am no exception. With my recent flop, I attempted to make lemonade out of this lemon!
Last week was Minnesota Shop Hop. My peeps and I not only visited all 12 shops on the list, but two others as well! Money was spent, let me tell you! The theme was Under the Sea, and each shop featured a hand-dyed yarn used in 1-2 patterns. One of my favorites was the shawl at StevenBe’s –the Undersea Adventures Châle in color Neptune sang my siren song! Before you could say, “What’s a Châle?” I had jumped on that thing!! Châle is French for shawl. Here you see Neptune himself standing next to le Châle in question:
I started the shawl immediately — loved the colors so much and the yarn is a dream. But my shawl was a horrific flop:
The shape was completely unacceptable! I don’t really know what happened. The original sample seemed fine!! I could have started it over and “fixed” it, but if that didn’t work, I’d have to fix it again. The thought exhausted me. So I opted for a cowl. I thought it a safe choice.
My cowl was also a flop: too wide, too long, too everything! But it did seem to ALMOST have the shape of a capelet. So I cut off the purple top section, reknit it to be smaller around, and voilà. The Undersea Adventures Capelet was born!
I love the sheer sections! I changed some of the stitches and added a crocheted scallop hem.
I haven’t worn it yet, as it is straight off the blocking board, but I think it will be a really pretty summer accent piece. I still love le Châle, but it just wasn’t in les jeux de cartes.
PS to Chloe: Thank you for your interesting comment. And depressing. 🙁 Steven IS wearing a Sophie Scarf!
PS2 to Millie: Here’s what I did, with the fingering weight yarn alone:
Round 1: slip 1 WYIB, kf&b
Round 2: slip 1 WYIF, p2tog tbl
PS3 to Lisa RR: I don’t believe this was the typical “hump” problem that I have encountered and fixed on many shawls in the past. I think the increase ratio is insufficient. Crescent shawls usually have 6 incs every 2 rows, (4 RS, 2 WS) at the beg/end of the rows. This pattern only has 4 (2 RS, 2 WS). But I didn’t really feel like testing my theory and not having it work! And the original had a small hump, per usual, not the Mount Everest shape I was getting! Maybe I’ll try again later?
Totally love those colors and your remake, Susan! I think the recently created Monday Shrug by Cady Jax would look great in those colors! The “Under the Sea” theme – I hope you don’t mind my dredging it up – reminds me of how knitting and crochet was used by an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to raise awareness of the dying Great Reefs due to climate change. Nationwide, people were asked to knit various creatures in brilliant color or all white (reflecting the actual color of dead creatures) in a very large and bold display. Sadly, there was a lot of “white” there. I remember feeling very honored that our humble craft would be used in such an eloquent and persuasive National endeavor. Meanwhile, in the present, you all looked like you had the time of your lives. And StevenBe (?) looks like he is wearing a Sophie scarf!
Comment by Chloe — April 23, 2023 @ 8:37 am
Hi, Susan,
I much prefer your capelet to the original shawl. One question though, the 2 rows on the “lemon” color at the bottom – how are they made?
Millie
Comment by Millie — April 23, 2023 @ 11:41 am
I have had that hump problem before as well. Did I misunderstand the instructions? Were the instructions not correct?
I admit if the shawl was for me, I probably didn’t rip it out.
sigh
Great colours. No wonder you were struck by the kit.
Comment by Lisa RR — April 24, 2023 @ 9:55 pm