WIP Wednesday: Not Having Fun Yet

I couldn't wait to start this pattern:

It's the Ojo de Dios Shawl from the Winter 2014 issue of Interweave Knits, and it is a stunning pattern. It uses Plymouth Yarn Company's Gina yarn to achieve a dramatic effect. I saw a finished shawl at a yarn store in New Mexico when we traveled over winter break and fell in love.

It took me a while to get my hands on the yarn. Apparently the popularity of this pattern caused a run on Gina. Because of the delay, I could have read pattern notes on Ravelry. But I didn't. I just plunged in blindly.

As you can see, you knit one triangle and then pick up stitches to add the rest, forming the lower portion of the shawl. If I had read Rav, I would have known that backwards loop is not the only way to add stitches for additional cast-on. I hate knitting the first row of backwards loop stitches! It is quite fiddley and frustrating. Now I know.

And you can see that curling is a huge problem. Some knitters on Rav were able to block the edge flat; others said it was impossible. I may end up following the example of knitters who picked up stitches along the bottom and added a border to keep it flat.

This is a lot of work. I hope it's worth it!

I hope everyone is having more fun with their WIPs. You can find out by checking with Tami Amis.

Love Those Colors But ...

Wow, another week has gone by without a post, and I'm feeling sad about that. It's the result of continuing craziness at school and the fact that my dad is still recovering from the fall he took in October. I always thought that life would be calmer once my kids were out of the house. I was wrong about that! Besides, I miss those two.

But there has been knitting. I realized that I haven't ever knit a pair of socks for my dear friend Debbie, so I had to get right on that. I pulled out a skein of Poems Sock yarn by Wisdom Yarn, an impulse buy at the last Knitting Guild meeting I attended. It's a rustic yarn with beautiful long color changes.

The yarn is a bit splitty, but not unmanageable. However, it seems awfully thick at some points -- sort of like knitting socks with lace-weight. It occurred to me to look up the yarn on Ravelry. I really need to do that before I buy yarn! There is nothing like the wisdom of other knitters. They also complained about the thinness, but more worryingly, they noted that it breaks easily and many said they'd never use it for socks. However, some knitters were perfectly happy with the socks they made.

What do to???