Menokreatikkul; The Rework - Take One

Last week, I shared with you the unravelling of the heavy Alpaca yarn from one project, so that it might be used in another. The yarn itself is intriguing, being of the 'blown' style of production, rather than plied...

Do you see how it's almost chain-like? There is a lot of heft to it - this is weighty yarn. Which is why, having been knitted loosely at first, the length of the tabard F produced became very elongated  - right down to my ankles and posing a trip hazard if I leaned even the slightest bit forward. I did try some ties and buttons, but it just wasn't quite working. Hence the unravelling - and rewinding.

This produced five cakes of close to equal size. The original thought was to work up the ruana lattice pattern I shared with you a few weeks back. I figured that keeping the stitches much tighter, while still sturdy/heavy, would produce a much more stable garment. 

I got as far as that. Only that far... here's why... First, it was becoming clear already that those five cakes were not going to complete this particular project. The simple fact is that crochet requires more yarn than knitting. On average, around 25%. A little less when working in taller stitches; more when using the slip/single crochet stitch. Had the width of the ruana proven to be close to that of the original tabard item, it might have been a gamble - but no, I could see that was going to be heartbreaking. 

Second, even though I used a smaller hook size than recommended and scaled back the foundation-stitch count, the width was just r.i.d.i.c.u.l.o.u.s...

Ruanas are meant to be somewhat blanket or cape-like, but really. Anyway, in that swatch, I had used three-quarters of the first cake of yarn and hadn't even yet completed a full pattern. I liked the look of the pattern, but this needs to be worked with a slightly lighter yarn - a plain aran or a heavy double knitting weight. 

The third part of my decision to frog this and rethink (yes, it got unravelled again!) was the pattern itself. Given that this came from Yarnspirations, the misprints in it are frustrating beyond belief. In that first ten rows alone, I had to sit and puzzle out precisely what was supposed to be happening, then scribbling the corrections over the PDF so that - when I do come to this again - I'll at least have that bit sorted... but expect that when I do return, there will be a few more such hurdles. What really ought to be quite a straightforward, relatively easy pattern became an exercise in teeth-gnashing and hair-pulling. 

Deep breaths. I frogged that work and started again with a tried-and-true pattern... back next week to see the year out with that project!