31 January 2010

Perfect for Gnomes

I made a lovely Estonian lace shawl during my first few months here in Glasgow.  It knit up amazingly quickly -- largely because I knew a total of zero people in town and had no internet at home, so spent all my free time knitting -- and I was epically pleased with it.  Unfortunately, I finished it up to and including knitting and attaching the border before I could no longer delude myself that it was in no way possible it would block out to an appropriate size for an adult, unless that adult desired a knitted neckerchief:


Those are a tape measure and a copy of Charlotte Brontë's Villette, a trade-paperback sized book which incidentally is fantastic, shown for size.  As well as my toes, shown because I couldn't be arsed to crop the photo before I posted this.

The tragic irony is that I actually DID knit a gauge swatch for it, which I often don't do for lace projects like shawls, where blocking can cover a multitude of ills and the specific size isn't all that important.  Too bad there was a misprint in the swatch instructions, as far as I can tell, because there's essentially no correlation between the stitches and size as printed for the swatch and for the finished project.

The good news is that it provided another several evenings' worth of entertainment to rip the whole thing out, then steam and re-wind the yarn.  Now I'm working on a different variation of the pattern.  I enjoy Sisyphean make-work.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I won't even type the amount of "haha-ing" that is going on over here, because I'm afraid it would be too obnoxious for human company.

Auntie Maim said...

I know, I know! I still can't believe I knit away for weeks and weeks while thinking, "Hm, this seems ... small?" Gut instinct (or common sense) = there for a reason.

Anonymous said...

You should have saved it for your first child! I've always wanted to dress up a baby as a really old person and go Benjamin Button the hell out of people. Shawl? Check. All you'd need is a grey wig, some spectacles and a dress made of flower-print calico fabric.

Auntie Maim said...

AHAHAHA! This is an indisputably fantastic idea. I will credit you when I inevitably put it into action.