Gentle Reader, be it known far and wide that the Pilgrim has returned from his long summer holiday. And quite the jaunt it was, hither and thither across European soils: time spent relaxing with family, and friends, and people not known to one at all, including, one might say, bizarre close encounters with a female member of the United States Supreme Court (at an adjacent dining table), and a certain very blonde head of a famed Italian fashion house (in the airplane seat just opposite on the return journey home). And her little dog, too...
Indeed, wonderful diversions all, and now, alas, I am back.
And although it was a terrific trip for the appetite and the soul, one cannot state that it was great for the knitting. Nay, one might say that the Pilgrim experienced a most frustrating time with the garment he chose to bring along.
Not so very long ago, some of you may recall a certain "hoodie" the Pilgrim knit up for his nephew, the young and exceedingly polite Matthew. Well, the Pilgrim has dreamt of just such an item for himself long since - but in cotton rather than wool.
To start, one found a fiber he was willing to try - Cascade Yarns Sierra Pima Cotton / Merino Wool 80-20 blend in a suitable shade of gray. He decided to forego the undoubtedly modern Noro striping, and settled instead upon a contrast of the same fiber - in black, of course. It was at this point that the trouble began...
False start 1:
Although the Pilgrim spent much more time than that to which he is accustomed testing his gauge and whatnot, after knitting the hood (back and forth) and then shifting to in-the-round for the body, he discovered, much to his dismay, that the gauge too had suffered a shift. The back-and-forth section was a at least two needle sizes larger than the in-the-round! And so, alas, there was nothing to do but to frog the frigger and start anew.
False start 2:
At our second destination along the trip, all was going well. One had compensated by knitting very tightly on the purl side of the back-and-forth hood section, and switched to a larger needle size and a looser knit for the in-the-round. Blithely did one knit...and knit...and knit...round and round and round and round. Happily adding a stripe here and there, varying the pattern with whim and whimsy. Oh what fun. That is...until one decided actually to try the blasted thing on. TOO SMALL. Ridiculously so. And so, the Pilgrim frogged the so-and-so, and frogged and frogged some more!
At our final stop - at our friends' lovely home in the Dordogne - one screwed up one's courage, took needles in hand and started again. And so far, so good. Sharing herewith, the current state of things.
Until next time, very fond regards from a somewhat relaxed and exceedingly long-winded Knitty P!
1 comment:
that's lovely! sometimes false starts yield lovely finishes!
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