True optimist

 It's not always true, but when it comes to yarn I apparently am a true optimist. I reckon any small skein or ball of yarn will take me to the moon and back. At least! :) I have four balls of this super bulky yarn, Dream from Svarta Fåret. Each ball contains 33 m (36 yards) of yarn. It's not much. I feel embarrassed when I remember that I actually thought it would last for a small poncho and a pair of simple mitts. :) Haha! After knitting up the first ball, I was afraid I would only get half a poncho... 

 I really should learn from my mistakes. But also, I love the challenge of making the yarn last in some way. Like this time. I really, really wanted that poncho. Warm and cuddly. I think the color will go so well with my jeans. :) The original plan was garter stitch on big needles. That wouldn't do. So I thought I might prolong it some by making dropped stitches. And it worked! Yippee! It made the knitted piece 25% longer, which I think will be enough.


I also went up one number in needles, from 9 mm circular to 10 mm straight. I love using circulars, but all those yo's made it really hard to get the stitches back up on the needle once they had slipped down on the cable. And the yarn really calls for 10 mm anyway... I wish I had even bigger ones, need to buy me a pair. 12 mm perhaps.

Do you see the blue rubber band on the needle? I use it to remember when to start wrapping that yarn. The pattern is so simple, just knit 4 rows, then *k1, 2 yo* for one row, and knit the stitches and drop the yo's on the 6th row. But you see, 4 rows of knitting is enough to make me confused. Now I only have to think half as much. When the rubber needle is free, I can immediately see if it's time for yo's yet or not. :) That's me.

This is a quick knit. I would have finished it today, if I hadn't ripped it all up last night. I had used up two balls, and then realized the work looked all wonky on one side. The pattern said "k1, 2 yo the entire row", so I did. Even the last stitch was followed by yo's, which apparently was a mistake. Too much yarn that did not make a straight, good looking edge. So I put the needle through the stitches before the first row of dropping and ripped it up.

I also want to remind you, do you remember that post I wrote about felting ends together? It came in very handy in this project too. No ends to weave in, how lovely is that!