So I have the bad habit of strolling through the yarn selection at my local craft shop even when I really, really don’t need to be getting any more yarn. During one such stroll I found this wonderfully autumn-colored variegated yarn and ended up making off with two skeins of it for a future project. That future project ended up being the lovely shawl pictured above, the pattern is called “Comfort Abides” from Knit Prayer Shawls by Leisure Arts Publication.
I was debating on whether to give the shawl away or keep it for myself, and around the second major mess up in the pattern I decided to keep it, mostly because if I gave it to anyone I would know the problems with it and it would bug me to no end. I will not point out where the issues in the pattern are, mostly because I’m still not sure how the pattern got messed up in the first place.
All I do know is that at one point I looked at the pattern and I noticed the holes were not where they were supposed to be, and that the row stitch count did not match what it should be according to the pattern. Because of how tricky the pattern was, and I couldn’t pinpoint the exact row where the stitch count went off, I decided that instead of ripping the old work out I would make adjustments / additions where needed to correct the stitch count. I can say with pride that the pattern got back on track and I was able to adjust so that the mistakes shouldn’t be glaringly obvious. Both times it happened.
Aside from the pattern mistakes there was one other issue I ran into while finishing the shawl. Any one with keen eyes will probably notice the off colored line inches in the very top row, where I managed to run out of yarn only two feet from the end of the project. Since I had already decided to keep the shawl I chose to finish the bind off with a bit of scrap yarn I had in my stash and call it a day. I could have ripped out a row so I would have enough yarn, but with so little left to finish I figured using scrap yarn would be quicker and look just as good. I will say that I think the color of the extra yarn works well with the other colors in the skeins that were used, but I wish I had used a similarly complementary scrap yarn that had a little more length to it. Currently the yarn I have isn’t enough to do even a simple slip stitch crochet edge on the shawl so I’ve just bound it off. All together it doesn’t look bad but it is another reason why the shawl will be going in my closet to use on a chilly day once we properly get into the fall.
I think I would like to make the pattern again now that I have some experience with it, but I will definitely be making sure I get enough yarn to finish the shawl all in one color and then some left over. Whether I will be able to complete the pattern without messing up the stitch count again will have to be seen, but I hope the experience with making it once will help me do better the second time through.
