Trial and Error

I was soooo happy to cast off the birthday scarf. Couldn't wait to see it off needles and get a good look at it. Wrap it around The Man's neck and take a gander.

The scarf was knit lengthwise on a 60" circ, so prior to cast off, I didn't know exactly how long it would be, nor how it would look.

The good news is: it looks great. The colours are lovely, the patterning somewhat random, which gives it a nice, organic feel. Lots of fun, interesting without being weird or girly (it is for The Man, after all).

The bad news: it is about 12" too short.

How, you may be asking, does such an atrocity occur? Is not lilknitter wise enough to know better than to cast on for the bloody project without knitting a freaking swatch first?!

No, apparently she does not.

I was in a hurry. I was able to crawl out of bed long enough to buy the yarn for the birthday scarf the day before the birthday in question, so I was a little short on time, and swatching for gauge was the corner I cut. I used Candi Jensen's pattern from Vickie Howell's DIYNetwork show, Knitty Gritty (which I've never actually seen, but I found the pattern online over a year ago, and knew it was destined to adorn The Man's neck), and the pattern called for a cast on of 400 sts. I looked at her gauge, and at the tension suggestions on my ball bands, and thought, Hey, pretty close; fit isn't a big issue on a scarf! I'll just go-o-o with it.

Gee, I'm dumb.

The scarf is short. Stupid short. Looks totally wrong short. And I was so pissed at myself! I know better than to skip the swatch! I always do a swatch! But NO! I was in a hurry. And because the damned thing was knit length-wise, adding length in pattern is...totally impossible.

But what if we change the pattern? Last night, it occurred to me: what if I knit in the same, or an approximately similar, pattern, but width-wise, picking up stitches from the short ends after weaving in the free-ends from the yarn changes.

So, that is the new plan. I had thought when I first saw my serious error in judgement that there was no hope for the scarf, that it would have to be entirely frogged and start again. But I have renewed hope.

I have had to roll back my progress bar by a good margin.Let's just cross our fingers that I don't run out of yarn.

FO details once there is, you know, a FO.

It's been cold but hesitantly sunny here. Wembley tries to seek out a sunbeam every day, which is difficult, since we're sort of NNE/SSW facing, with windows only on the front and back of the house. But she tries, and sometimes she succeeds.