What is it about this week???

Heather is at an impasse, Elizabeth hasn't knitted at all this week, and I absolutely hate my current project.

Don't get me wrong: I have enjoyed working on it. But with one sleeve nearly finished, I tried it on. UGH! It was awful. So awful that I'm not even going to show you a picture. Yes, it's that bad.

You're probably wondering what project I'm talking about. Here it is laying on my living room floor:

Lovely, isn't it? Sure, while it's laying flat on the floor, it's beautiful. But on my body, it looks like I'm wearing a string sack. What went wrong?

1) The pattern is written for small-ish sizes. If you look at the picture on Interweave's website, you'll see that it is supposed to fit snuggly. I thought I "knew better" and made it larger. I even scolded Annie Modesitt a couple of weeks ago on this very blog for designing it for tiny people. Well, sometimes the designer knows what she's doing. It's not supposed to fit loosely. It's not flattering on larger body types. It's not meant to be.

2) When it comes to yarn, I chose poorly. The pattern calls for a cotton/tencel blend. A lovely yarn with beautiful sheen and wonderful drape. I chose Plymoth Shire Silk. A yarn that is so crunchy it could stand on it's own. What was I thinking? I even second-guessed myself when I looked at the yarn. For a moment, I entertained the idea of using South West Trading Company Pure Soysilk. I should have listened to that voice. The garment still would have been unflattering, but at least it would drape nicely. I'm not saying I don't like the Shire Silk. I do! It was wonderful to work with. I enjoy it very much. It just wasn't right for this project. And I think I knew that when I started.

So, those two things combined to form yarny disaster. I did learn one other thing, though. The shape of this garment is wonderful. The fact that it's so lacy is what didn't work for me, I think. There's a garment of similar shape that I tried on at TNNA last year that looked wonderful on me. But, it was a solid knit, not a lacy crochet.

Now you're wondering what I'm going to do with it, right? I'm going to rip it all out. That's right. Two whole week's worth of crocheting in every spare minute I could find, and I'm going to rip it all out. This yarn is nice. I like it. I'm not going to let it go to waste on an unfinished garment I'll never wear. What will it be instead? I don't know.....I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out.