willy nilly knitting OR when blocking goes badly

alright, i'll admit it, i don't always have a well thought out plan when i decide to start a new project. ok, actually, i rarely have much of a plan at all. i like to knit and create things in a spontaneous manner, which sometimes leads to a great new piece and well, sometimes it doesn't. i think i'm having one of those weeks where things aren't as pretty as the ideas in my mind.

take for instance my first oops! moment of the week, the felted wool/ knitted fabric bag. while not a complete failure, after washing and fulling this mini project, i came to the realization that it doesn't look quite as nice as i had hoped. i mean, it's not ugly, but something about it doesn't quite flow. i'm thinking that i should still be able to rip back part of the fabric part and rework it but for now it's sitting in my laundry room. at some point, maybe i'll feel a creative urge to fix it, but right now i feel completely uninspired.

on to my second project of the week: an alpaca slouchy beret
this one i figured would be a piece of cake (mmmm, i love cake). i found this odd ball (the label is long gone) mixed in with the yarn stash towards the end of last week. at this point, i know i've had it for a while but can't actually remember where i bought the yarn or what i originally intended to use it for. in fact, i think i had knit another project with it and then frogged the whole thing because the ball was kinda wonky. anyways, i decided that there looked like enough yarn to make a simple little cabled beret and cast on what i figured would be the appropriate number of stitches.

all seemed to be going well as i started this project. did a little bit of 1x1 ribbing, increased the number of stitches to give me the beret kind of shape and began with the cables. decided that instead of a nice even cable i would try to make it unbalanced and less strict, which i succeeded in doing quite easily. sometimes i like things to look perfect, sometimes i admire the little variations and imperfections of handmade objects.

so, as i'm getting close to finishing this hat, i realize that i don't really have enough yarn to make it as slouchy as i wanted it to be... nutz! but i decided to just go ahead and finish it up anyway, hoping that the blocking will add some ease and make it ok after all.


pretty purple beret, before blocking:
(with intentionally wonky cables)



i quickly wove in the ends, grabbed the spritzy water bottle and let Ash help me spray it down and lightly stretch it. first i grabbed a dinner plate and let it mostly block wrapped around that, but then i realized that to get it more slouchy i was going to have to find something with a bit more height, so i grabbed a ceramic mixing bowl. did my best to stretch it over the bowl and let it dry that way last night.
this morning i tried it on and gasp! what have i done? stretched the stinking ribbing out so badly that it doesn't even act like ribbing anymore!!!!

needless to say, this was before i had even had coffee or packed the kids' lunches for school... not a good way to start the day.

i began another project last evening too, the Louisa Harding Fern strapless top. this will be the 3rd time i've started this project due to simple little mistakes when i wasn't being careful during the previous cast-ons and first few rows. i'm determined that i will succeed this time in knitting this project, although given how the week has started i'm a little worried. at least i have a pattern to follow though. if it turns out ok, it may save the week!

::crosses fingers::
::hopes for best::