Scarves unraveled and good foundations

I am working on a delicate, lovely scarf for someone who has made such an amazing  difference in my life. The yarn recommended for the pattern, Rowan kidsilk haze, had this lovely pink color called Grace and I knew that was it. That is what this person has brought to my life (I would name her but she might be reading!) It is the thinnest, softest yarn I have ever used and the hardest pattern I’ve ever worked.

After doing the gauge swatch, I knew that this yarn was not going to be easy to work with. I actually did a practice round with some cotton/poly blend yarn – I never do practice rounds. I just jump in and woo! come what may! Once I’d done the practice round, I cast-on the good stuff and worked one round of the pattern. Counting the stitches as I was going through I realized I didn’t have enough stitches so I adjusted the stitches to fall in the right place and then added them on in the final row of the pattern as it was a simple row of purling/knitting. Time passes…

I knew I was putting it off but I didn’t know why. Part of it, I’m sure, is the yarn/pattern combo but the other part is because I knew that the foundation wasn’t right. I couldn’t decide whether to unravel or keep going. I pulled it together this weekend, sat down and worked the first row of the pattern. If it went well, then I would keep going. What was already done really didn’t look so bad now. Well, after the first row of the pattern, I lost a stitch. So I took one off, added a stitch with a yarn-over, knit the final stitch and counted again. Still off by one stitch. I’m thinking not only can I not KNIT I can’t even COUNT! Ugh – ok. Time to unravel. It came down to this: the foundation just wasn’t right and if the foundation isn’t right, then the rest of it is going to be skewed. And maybe the recipient wouldn’t know it but I would and it was going to stop me from going forward.

Things don’t have to be perfect the first time out and I fight that – I want it to just happen, right out of the gate. Sometimes I don’t want to keep going because it’s not right the first time but that really never accomplishes anything, does it? You just end up with a bunch of half-assed stuff lying around in your brain and your life, taking up space and niggling at you.

So. I am unraveling the scarf and doing another practice round. It’s a hard pattern but I think the end result is going to be so soft and pretty that it’s going to be worth the extra effort. And I’ll feel better giving it knowing I spent the extra time. Stay tuned…