Recent Needlework

Success and failure should be the title of this one.  The colorful picture is one of the scarf I knitted some time back and it had to have oodles of knots tied in it and Beth did that.  She enjoys it — it’s made of several strands of ribbon-like material.

Now the red picture has a story!  First off, Beth saw this in an exclusive knit shop in Madison, Georgia and bought the yarn to make it — red and off white. The yarn has some wool in it – hands tell that as you work with it — and it’s like a tiny rope.  Easy to work with.  She failed to measure the size of the cowl and left the material here with some (guess work) instructions.  I knitted it with the two colors and mailed it to her — you guessed it — it was too long.  When she came she brought the thing and told me the (another guess work)size to try again.  I raveled all that out and started over.  I knitted it with circular needles (size 13) and had made several rounds when I discovered I was using a stockinet stitch and was supposed to be using garter stitch. Again I raveled.  So I finished the cowl (I thought) and it fit my head.  I raveled again and next time I added ten stitches which I thought would be enough.  Wrong — this time it fit like a turtle neck.  I raveled again, knitted it longer and mailed it to her saying if it wasn’t right I didn’t want to know about it.  Whew!  It’s okay, I’m told.

Remember when I talked to you last about needlework I was knitting a tabard with some yarn I bought in England?  I completed it and for some reason it stretched from right to left and was a mile too big.  Talk about problems — I’ve had them.  Now that’s raveled out and in balls.  I really do want to make something from it — but what?

Beth brought two sweaters I made when she was larger and I’m trying to ravel them; however, the yarn is fuzzy and that is giving me a fit.  I may just chuck it, but she said, “But that’s the yarn I bought when so and so.”  She is the baby, you know.  This, too, is country living.