When buying yarn for a garment project, I almost always add in an extra skein. You see, I can’t shake the worry that after all that work and expense and time, it’ll be too small. That’s devastating enough, but to not have enough yarn to fix it? Even worse.
(This fear comes from a lifetime of struggling to find clothes that fit me well. You can read more about that here: Designing for Fat Bodies)
So I wasn’t surprised when I had about 250g left after knitting Roseability. I’d done the usual – worked out how much I needed, then added in an extra – and that left just 1 hank in stock. So of course I grabbed that odd one, too.
This is how Idlewild came to exist. When a design is in test I keep the sample, the swatch, and the leftovers on my desk, so it’s all right there if I need to refer back for any questions or issues. The test period for Roseability is quite long – 4 months – and so that extra 250g was sitting there looking at me, reminding me that 250g is plenty for an accessory of some kind, and who was I to let good yarn – beautiful, red, luxurious yarn – go to waste?
So I started thinking about it and working out what I might like to do. I immediately thought of a half pi shawl, big and lacy and floaty, wrapped around the shoulders so that petal lace could drape and be shown off to its full beauty. But the shawl in my head was bigger than 250g would really allow, so I sat with the idea, waiting for it to evolve into something else.
Then I remembered about one of the few patterns I’ve knit more than once. It’s a cowl that starts flat like a shawl, then is joined to work in the round. You end up with a sort of joined backwards shawl, a cowl that’s much longer in the front than in the back, that’s so easy to grab and pop over your head when you’re walking out the door and realise it’s cooler than you thought.
It’s an amazing shape – all the fun and drape of a shawl but with about half the yarn. They fly off the needles and one is never enough. I’d been meaning to make one for a while, but hadn’t worked out a design idea yet.
So I took those two thoughts and smashed them together. I started knitting a half pi shawl, then changed to working in the round to make it a cowl.
And do you know what? I still have about 100g left!
