Training begun and done

Since I have this fabulously expensive yarn for the Knitting Olympics, it would be a real shame to follow my usual modus operandi and eschew gauge. So last night, the swatching of the Diamond Fantasy shawl begun. And ended.

What I learned: 1. This yarn is kind of splitty. I will actually have to pay some attention while knitting. 2. Recycling paper is good, but not necessarily so good when you have to cut a logo off the bottom. Turns out the printer can’t tell there is no paper and move the rest of the pattern to the next column. Which makes it really hard to figure out why you have five stitches too few. My stupidity never ceases to amaze me. At least I figured this out before the official cast on next Friday. 3. Mohair is sticky. Ok, guess I already knew that, but adding in some nylon glitz makes it even stickier. Which leads to…4. Can’t make a mistake with this project. Just can’t afford it $$$wise or sanity wise. As you can see, the frogging didn’t go so well and I already wasted some of the precious. 5. Will have to actually pay attention (did I already say that?).

After all that, I needed something low stress. Stacie’s scarf looks much better knit on 15’s. I thought it might be funky and help keep me awake to put a cable in the middle. With this kind of yarn, I knew it wouldn’t turn out like a regular cable but was hoping it would produce an interesting effect. It did and I like it. I think it will look even better after a wet blocking to stretch it a bit and define the stitches.

Finally the too short hat for Tom is fixed. I picked up stitches and used some leftover grey WOTA. The gauge was just about the same and mixed fine with the other wool. I should have it in the mail later today.