I headed out to the LYS (local yarn store) to purchase a shawl pin for a gift item I just finished. They were all out of shawl pins but they were having a BIG yarn sale! I picked up a skein of hand-painted alpaca/silk blend for only $6. It is a lovely gray, white and soft pink. I figured it was the perfect thing to pair with some gray alpaca handspun. If I put them together it should be enough to do a simple garter stitch scarf.
That was my first mistake. There must be a word for the phenomenon I keep running into after buying an unbelievably marked down item. It happens almost every time. I get home all excited about the really nice stuff I got for NEXT TO NOTHING only to end up dropping a fortune on companion items that are needed to make the cheap thing useful. Like the video game I got for only five dollars for the GameStation. How was I to know that the only way to play Pokemon Battle Stadium was if Jessica and I both got gameboys and our own red/blue pokemon games, then spend months catching pokemon and raising them up to battle? Over $100 dollars later we had what we needed to play the $5 bargain.
Well, it happened again on this beautiful yarn! It wasn't the right weight to mix well with the alpaca I had intended to use it with. No problem. I just got the Interweave Crochet magazine. It has something called the SeaFoam Shawl that I really like. On the model it looks more like a small scarf than a shawl. I think this yarn would work nicely for this.
Did I check the yardage requirements? Did I check the yarn type/weight suggestions? Heck NO. It is a freakin scarf for cryin' out loud. Size is not that important and surely I have enough yarn. It is a dinky scarf! Look at it!
PICTURE COMING SOON
This pattern is worked lace edge first. Then the middle is filled in with seed stitch to create a sort of crescent shape. When I got to the end of the lace part it was really evident that there was not going to be enough yarn. Off to the LYS I go to get another skein. OH NO !!! What made me think that there would be any left at all? It was $25 HAND-painted alpaca/silk! What was I thinking! Of course there is none left.
Oh well, I'll frog this and make something else out of it. But, I really wanted to make this pattern so I bought a $20 hank of Alpaca Sox yarn so I could start over on the spot. I know I have close to 50 skeins of sock yarn in my stash. I KNOW that at least three of them are also Alpaca Sox. I also am very aware that one of the skeins in the stash is very close to this same color of green. I bought it anyway.
I'm not sorry. It is working up quickly and is sooooo amazingly soft and drapy. The lace is done and I'm probably 3/4 done with the seed stitch filling... wait... what >? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Single stitch in the next hole twice. I thought that meant to single stitch in the hole and then single stitch again in the same hole. She meant to single stitch in the next hole and then single stitch in the NEXT hole. All my filler rows are wrong! Arrrrgh.
(no wonder it is shaping funny)
Here we go again.... rip ... rip....rip
