Unlimited Possibilities?

So whoever told me (which was probably nobody at all and really I'm just making this up) that a 1-lb cone of fingering weight wool yarn offered me infinite possibilities was wrong. What it really offers is unlimited waffling. If you know how hard it is for me to make up my mind about anything, you know this is a bad, bad thing.

Anyway, here I am with my pound of yarn in a color that is not grey or green or blue, but some intermediate, indeterminate color. I thought, hooray! Finally I can make a big pretty lacy thing and not worry about running out of yarn!

Enter Exhibit A: The Print O' The Wave Stole.

At first I thought I was going to make this up as a gift at the end of the school year, and guess what? Of course it didn't get finished. In the interim I'd made a few things from Victorian Lace Today and subsequently decided I didn't care for the construction of the stole.

As you can see, this was after I'd begun applying the border.



Well, interesting. Once I took the needles out, I could actually see what the darn thing looked like! Kind of nice, even. Oh well. It wasn't making me happy, so now it's gone.

I then had another, brilliant idea -- how about a nice cardigan sweater?

Enter Exhibit B: Ridiculously tiny swatch of doom.

I've been seeing a lot of doom-y swatches these days. Mine is a different sort. I decided to try some eyelet patterns over a stockinette stitch fabric, which would make a nice sweater, don't you think? I decided to be a good knitter and make a nice, big swatch that I could measure easily, and I washed it and blocked it before I even looked at the tape measure. So far, so good, right? Except I got the bright idea to knit it up on #1 needles.

I'm not scared of fine-gauge knitting and I know it's been done by lots of other people (and heck, I've knit one sweater on #2s and another on #3s and lived to tell the tale), but really, 8.5 stitches to the inch? 13.5 rows to the inch? This is madness!



The eyelets don't even look that good.

So here I am, seized with a fit of misdirected creativity. What do you think? Should I try again on #2s, block the eyelets out a little more and try to make the gauge slightly less ridiculous? I only have Barbara Walker #1 on hand right now... do you know a better eyelet pattern hanging around? Should I give up and cry for mercy, hoping that the yarn will make itself into something spectacular and amazing while I go back to making more and more socks, which are evidently the only things I've knit all year? Help!

Comments

RangerSarah said…
Ahh! I'm knitting a top on size 3s, and that's just about all I can take. I knit and knit, and I can't even tell that I've added anything. I know you have a lot of free time - but 1s? They'll drive you slowly insane! I say just stash the yarn and forget it exists until you find the perfect pattern. Good luck! (Oh, and I bet I know where you got that yarn - I looked at those cones every time I went in there, and always said to myself, "What would I DO with all that yarn??")
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