Monday, November 8, 2010

Plan B

Abi, my youngest Grand daughter, will be nine years old on Christmas day. She is enamored with all things 'buggy' but especially the Dragon Fly.

I spotted this
a lovely, little, blue, Dragon Fly necklace at the Meaford Craft Show in October. A perfect birthday gift for Abi.

Then ambition set in. How nice would it be to knit a little sweater to show of the Dragon Fly necklace. I envisioned something with short sleeves, cardigan style, a couple of dramatic buttons and texture. Cables, perhaps? Or garter stitch?

Of course the sweater needed some blue, but my inner designer told me that all blue would only camouflage, rather than show off, the necklace. Hmmm. Abi's favourite colour is purple and . I just happened to have some lovely Purple Zara. One of the many yarny gifts in my goodie bag from my day in Ancaster last spring.

I settled on the pattern Shalom. Of course Shalom is an adult sized pattern and Abi isn't. Shalom calls for quite chunky yarn and mine isn't. But knitters, for generations have been turning out smaller sweaters simply by knitting with a smaller gauge yarn. Haven't they? I'm sure I've read that somewhere.

Mind you the details were a little sketchy. In fact, there were none. It was definitely a 'well, let's see what happens' kind of approach.

And what happened is that the size is WAY! off. I have a doll size sweater happening here.
Tonight, Plan B. Beginning with a search for an appropriate pattern. I'm thinking maybe Elizabeth Zimmermann can help me here. Maybe a 'yoke' sweater done EZ style, purple body, blue yoke. Keep the sleeves short. Instead of a yoke with colour work, a yoke with Shalom's twisted rib pattern. It could work.

All my 'vision' boxes ticked, I'm ready for round two.

4 comments:

Needles said...

It is a gorgeous little swatch, if you choose to look at it like that. Surely a little math? Ah well, a vision is good too.

Yarn and Ivories said...

Don't give up... maybe there's a doll out there...
And sometimes those "let's see what happens" projects turn out! It's a great yoke!

Gisella said...

Your plan B sounds great, go for it! I'm looking forward to seeing the result!
And the 'doll' dress looks gorgeous too! I love those columns of twisted stitches.

Laurie said...

I love dragonflies, too. And I loved knitting Shalom. From what I remember, that pattern was knit for an extra-small sized person, so maybe fewer adjustments are needed?