Back in May, I started knitting Damson (rav link!). It’s the knitting project I had with me on the trip to New York to see a Martha Stewart taping. I used yarn that Kara and I had hand-dyed back in February, during the crazy-awesome Webs weekend.
As I was getting close to the end of the project, I had the worst realization a knitter can have. I was going to run out of yarn, and there was literally no way of getting more.
I considered a number of solutions. The first was ignoring the problem, but it didn’t go away. In fact, it only got worse as I realized most ravelers who had knit this pattern commented on running out or cutting it close. Getting gauge on Damson is critical, as is counting those garter rows!
The next solution was trying to just knit tighter, but I quickly realized that would be dumb. Finally, the awesome ladies over at knit new haven helped me find a fun sock yarn, but it still wasn’t quite right. I ripped that border out.
Kara and I talked during this mini-crisis about ways I could get myself out of the corner I’d knit myself into, and she had recently knit herself (rav) a Melusine, which involved knitting with bare yarn then dyeing after knitting (with an eyedropper!). The best solution, short of ripping the @*(#$& thing out, seemed to be to try that with this shawl. Finally, I knit a border out of still-bare knitpicks bare yarn, knit a swatch out of more of the bare yarn, and shipped it all off to Kara.
She was super-busy starting her *awesome* new job, and vacationing with her boyfriend, and all kinds of wonderful things like that, so a few weeks ago, I got magic back in the mail from her. I finally had time to block it and photograph it today, and the more I look at it the more in awe I am of the stunning job she did.
Kara, you are so my hero. It’s fabulous, and I’m so rocking this the moment it’s not waaaaay too hot to wear wool.
