Tragedy & Drama (the usual stuff)

The beginning of my latest chapter in the saga of the "Sweater Loosely Based on the Cozy Cardi" (herefore after known as "CC" for Crappy Cardigan) starts on an unusually high note. This should have been my first indication of the disaster to follow. I was off on Friday, and this is how I spent my afternoon:


Ahhh, yes. Just me, the boys (running rampant and keeping out my hair for the most part), the CC, EZ's Knitting Around for help/inspiration, a little early Cinco De Mayo spirit, and the warm California sun. Life was good.

So, as you can see, I got the sleeves & body on one circular. I started decreasing for a saddle shoulder sweater per EZ & Meg, and things were looking good. In the words of the geniuses known as the Eagles: I "had planned it out so well, so carefully", that "I got a peaceful easy feeling". But, as my hero the Yarn Harlot knows all too well, pride goeth before a fall.

So, I spent Saturday working on this thing and decided to try it on, just to see how I was doing. I tried taking a picture in the mirror, but I failed miserably and was so disheartened by the whole thing that I just gave up. So, there are two MAJOR reasons why the Cozy Cardi is now the Crappy Cardi.


1) The waist shaping is waaay too severe, which causes it to balloon out very unattractively (I daresay freakishly). This is because I had forgotten to start my waist shaping during the early stages of this thing, and I figured I could just fudge the rows a bit to get to where I needed to be. Nope. But I think I can fix this by just cutting slits in the sides which will hopefully mask that problem. However, I am not so optomistic about #2.

2) If you look closely, you may notice that there is a definite band of DARKER RED in the MIDDLE of the cardigan body. Don't ask me how I missed this, but it appears that this yarn is NOT OF THE SAME DYE-LOT as the rest of the sweater! Holy idiocy, Batman, how did she miss that? Well, I have no excuse, other than the skeins have no ball-bands and I didn't notice the difference. I do remember that the yarn had felt "oilier" for a while, so I'm hoping it's just dirty and will come out the same color after a good wash (HA!). So, if anyone is out there, "won't you please, please help me?" (my nod the the Beatles)

You may notice that the sweater has not yet been put back on needles. Yup. I noticed that too.

So, to drown my sorrows, I must admit to a splurge on yarn never-before seen in this house. All of the yarn I have in my stash has been bought ON SALE. I've never paid full price for yarn, so this should give you an indication that I would feel that $20 for ONE skein of yarn is incredibly outrageous and I would refuse to support such price gouging by boycotting any and all yarn that would cost more than $4.00 for 100gms.

Well, I have succumbed to a 5-year obsession. Behold, Fiesta Yarn's Heaven & Gelato in the Rainforest colorway:



They are too gorgeous for words and the picture does them no justice. The Heaven is soooo soft. Just beautiful!

So here's the story: I taught myself to knit in the Winter of 2000, and in the Spring 2001 Knitter's magazine, I saw this, the "Monet Garter Stitch" shawl:



I don't care who you are, but that is the most drop-dead gorgeous thing I have ever seen. But the cost of the yarn would make that shawl like $80! So, it has been in the back of mind ever since. For 5 long years. Until I stumbled upon a website sale that was offering Fiesta Yarn for 15% off! AND free shipping! So, I did the deed, and now it's MINE, ALL MINE. But I've been dreaming of this for so long, I'm kind of afraid that I've hyped it up too much. I'll keep you all posted on any progress I might make.


And, yes, I am keeping up with my obligations and am dutifully working on the mate to my sock. I'm not really expecting the color to stack like it did on the first one, but I'm ok with that. My sock takes the edge off that Crappy Cardigan I'm trying to forget. Wish me luck!