Tuesday, June 22, 2010

6,480 Stitches to Rip

Around 5,000 stitches in, an acute awareness began to develop in the knitter's mind. "Holy Cannoli," she said aloud to no one in particular. "Dammit! There won't be enough of the green from this hank to finish this never ending block." There was only the dog to hear her mild oaths and he only cares about the knitter running out of cookies. He looked at the knitter oddly, sighed, and with certain knowledge that his treats weren't in question, he went back to sleep.


The knitter wasn't wrong about the looming yarn shortage, and she was aware that of all of the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Yarn that she'd purchased, only the green was in separate dye lots. At the time she'd thought that it wouldn't matter if the blocks weren't knit side by side, and indeed, it wouldn't. Nobody would have noticed. She tried the next best thing and began to alternate the new dye lot with the already in progress lot in an effort to get the two yarns to appear to blend.


In the afternoon light, all looked fairly decent and the knitter fell into a comfort zone, feeling rather smug that despite being from separate dye lots, the yarns were looking identical. Taking a step back to marvel at her ingenuity, the illusion created by a man made light fell apart.

The knitter is crying into her wool now and making a complete mess of things.

Please tell her it doesn't matter. The sophisticated babe won't care. Neither will its mother. Truth be told, the knitter can't bear the thought of ripping out more than 6,000 stitches that has taken her days to create.

...sigh...

16 comments:

SkippyMom said...

I don't know what you see from that pic' but I can guarantee you [from my end] it isn't noticeable and looks lovely.

And what's a baby know anyway? They drool and spit up on their lovely gifts, right?

Don't fret because the baby to be and the Momma aren't going to either.

It will be "our" secret. Shhhhh! ;D

Stephanie V said...

No one will mind that kind of quirky color blending. I would NOT rip out all that work. It's going to be beautiful, warm and welcome.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

no no no no no do not rip it out! it is lovely!

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Michaela said...

Dont cry. It looks lovely, it really does! I think you are maybe just a little bit perfectionistic. The baby (and mother) will be just thrilled with it just the way it is! xxooo

Gail said...

HALT! Do NOT Rip! I could tell no difference.

It's beautiful.

Brenda said...

Cute story telling Rudee...and I cannot see anything wrong with it. What kind of border will you have?

ari_1965 said...

I like it.

sue b said...

If it were me, which it's not, I would rip it. Because we have so little we can control, because we can make our knitting as perfect as possible, because WE will know if it's not perfect, because our knitting is something to be proud of and not worth doing if we can't be proud of it. So even if it looks fine and no one will notice or care, that's not good enough because it will spoil the pleasure of making it.

Rudee said...

Yes, SueB, there was only one right answer to this conundrum. Rippit, I did.

Brenda, I'm thinking of doing applied I cord as the border. We'll see.

Stephanie V said...

Guess I'm just not that much into perfection...if it really makes you crazy, though, you have to do what you have to do.

Jane said...

I don't think mother and baby would have noticed, but if you aren't happy, it just niggles away at you

LeAnn said...

No! Don't rip it out! It looks like it's designed that way. Seriously.

Rudee said...

Stephanie, still in denial, I ripped back to where I started this new yarn and began the alternating rows. From there, I'll knit until the first ball of yarn ends. I thought if I joined the new skein closer to the edge, the stripe won't bother me so much. I didn't rip the whole panel out. I think if I did that, I'd never finish this project.

NCmountainwoman said...

IT DOESN'T MATTER! IT DOESN'T MATTER! IT DOESN'T MATTER!

sandy said...

NO no no it won't matter.. Stay with it...It's gorgeous already!

Jeannette StG said...

Oh, the stresses of a knitter! But the babe won't know the difference:)