Thursday, September 4, 2008

Aran Wrap Cardi

Sea star and cucumber(?) at Maui Ocean Center.

My tentative adjustments to the Aran Wrap Cardi are the result of the yarn I picked to use. It's Cascade 220 from my stash, and it's a tweed. If I were to start over, I'd probably use a solid colored yarn. But this has been in my stash in large quantities since I bought it to knit a cabled poncho out of it. (The instructions for that were ridiculous, so I frogged it in frustration.) This yarn is one of my favs when I look at the ball:
But when I see it knit up, I'm having a hard time with it. It reads a very dull gray. It bothers me just like my Hemlock Ring disaster. Dull is NOT my most fav color when it's dull outside, and since I won't be wearing wool any other time but when it's dull and cold, this is most unfortunate!!!
Back to the adjustments. I was going to change the zigzag panels. One side of the cabled zig-zag has reverse stockinette, and the other has seed stitch. In this tweed yarn, you can't even see seed stitch definition, and that texture blends in and dulls the definition of the zigzag on that side. Also, for some reason, I can't get the seed stitch mojo going--I have to keep looking at the charts to see what stitch goes where for that, and it feels like it is slowing my progress down. So I was thinking both sides of the zigzag would be better done in reverse stockinette.

But NO, I am not going to frog it and start again. I decided ultimately to leave it as is. Partly because I caught a glimpse of this in natural light, and it looks way better than I was thinking!!! Yay for natural light :) And I think the change would alter the dimensions also. Apparently I could use some practice with seed stitch too, so I'm leaving it as is....It's just such a distracting yarn. (Gee, wish I was knitting this in a deep rich warm solid color, just like the Rainey Sisters!)

But:
  1. I want to use this yarn up.
  2. I want to see how this pattern looks knit in tweed.
  3. I want to wear something made of Cascade 220! So I will soldier on (it's not that bad-looking in the right light. I love knitting with this yarn! Cushy, squishy wool. One of my go-to favs...)

So that's where I am right now. I just started the third repetition of charts. I had to mark up my chart page with the errata, and change the chart rows numbering. I also ended up putting white-out over the old numbers as I kept looking at those and getting all messed up! Now it's a piece of cake. Here are my notations to myself:


I'm having lots of fun working on this project. Today was great, a rainy and cold precursor to fall, and I cranked on the cables while I watched "The Young & The Restless" on Soapnet...See, there's a reason for soap operas to exist--they are a great excuse to sit for an hour and knit!!!!!




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11 comments:

hetty said...

Glad to hear that you are not going to frog the Aran Wrap Cardi! The colour is great, especially for cold, dark weather. I can't wait to see it completed. It will be beautiful!!

Aim said...

thanks, hetty :)

Judy R. said...

Way to carry on!
It's funny, you start out so negative about the whole project and end up talking (typing) yourself right out of it. You sounded so positive by the end.

I really love the yarn and the project looks GREAT so far.
I too can not wait to see it done.

Thank you for the nice comments on my blog!

Sharon said...

Carry on my knitterly friend. I think it looks great. I can't wait to see it finished. (I know what you mean about just wanting it out of your stash already. I have a lot of that too).

Acornbud said...

It's a very nice aran-y color, imo. Knit on!

Aim said...

Thanks guys, for all your positive input! I'm liking it more as it grows... :)

Anonymous said...

It doesn't look dull at all! Keep knitting! Although at first I thought you'd drowned it.

Maryam in Marrakesh said...

Can I just say that I love that background quilt?

Susan said...

We had a quilt like that when I was little, maybe at Grandma's house? Anyway, I like that yarn and I don't think it's dull at all. And I love the cables.

hakucho said...

I think your cardi looks great. It will go with so many things...I think you'll love it when you are done with it :)

Aim said...

Hakucho, I think you're right. I don't necessarily wear the bright colors I am so attracted to!

Maryam, that quilt is a piece of wonder that was sold by the yard at a big chain store a few years ago. It was something like $50/yard, but I popped for it cuz it would take me my whole life to make one of my own :)