A Change of Plans

Remember how a few weeks ago I started the lovely Grannie Smith Cardi with my handspun? Well, after knitting more than half of one front, I realized that while I was getting gauge, and the pattern was showing up well, the yarn just wasn't right for the pattern. There wasn't enough drape to the knitting, even with the weight of the hem. I was using US 1's (2.25mm) to get gauge and it was just too dense of a fabric. Washing and blocking should have given it more drape (this yarn really looked lovely in the washed gauge swatch), but I just didn't think it would be right. So I unravelled it, wound it back up and started Plan B. Above, you can see Plan B and its already feeling and acting much more like the fabric I was hoping this yarn would become.

So, what is Plan B? Its a Vine Lace* Cardi, knit on US 4's, circular needles. I'm making up the pattern as I go but I'm planning on knitting up to the armholes, knitting the arms, then finishing the whole thing together with raglan shaping. I think this will make it easier for me to deal with knitting from two balls at once. (I'm still knitting two rows from each ball of yarn, then switching. The little floats as I switch balls will be hidden when I pick up stitches along the front edges for the button bands.) I haven't done very much with raglan shaping and while I have a general understanding of how it works, I've never designed with it, so that should offer me a challenge when I get to it, or tip me right over the edge of sanity, depending on what else is going on that week.

Just a note, I updated the list of Fiber Enablers on my sidebar yesterday and added Franquemont Fibers - you'll be seeing some of Abby's beautiful spinning fibers later this week, and Blue Moon Fiber Arts, home of the highly desirable Socks That Rock yarn. I really can't tell you enough good things about either company's products - try them out sometime.

*Vine Lace is a simple 4 row pattern, easy to memorize, that gives you points at the lower edge and makes a lacy vertical stripe pattern when knitted. Who among us does not love the vertical stripe? Directions are in Barbara G. Walker's first book or, because its a traditional pattern that's been around forever, if you use your Google skills, you can find it on the Internets (I found a tea cozy, an afghan, and something that used it knitted in the round without putting any real effort into the search.)