Many QueerJoe posts let you know about my successes. This one is about the seven steps to frustration. Just so you know it’s not all roses and sunshine at QueerJoe.

Design Issues – Seven Steps To Frustration

I’ve discussed my design process before. The typical steps for me are:

1. I find an interesting stitch pattern or yarn or knitted fabric.
2. Yarn choice(s) are made.
3. Choice of needle size is made.
4. A swatch is created (sometimes the swatch is the actual start of the garment).
5. Sometimes, I question if the design is working, so I’ll either continue on to see if it gets better, or adjust some aspect:
   1. Change gauge/needle size
   2. Use different yarn/yarns
   3. Adjust the stitch pattern
   4. Block out a section of knitting to see if that helps
6. Carry on with any adjustments.
7. Repeat step five as necessary until it works, or I abandon the idea.

So here’s how my latest mess went.

1. Found a really interesting stitch pattern that I thought would work well with two colorways of yarn.
2. Chose two of my most amazing fingering weight yarns that I thought would work fantastically well.
3. Selected a needle size of US 4 (3.5 mm).
4. Created a single-color swatch.
5. Didn’t like the fabric I was creating, so I:
   1. Adjusted the pattern slightly to make it more open/lacy. Structurally it didn’t work.
   2. Went up to a US 5 (3.75 mm) needle. Still didn’t like the fabric.
   3. Was surprised at how thick this fingering weight yarn was, but chalked it up to the fact I had just finished a lace-weight project.
   4. Decided that a change to US 7 (4.5 mm) and alternating yarn colors would fix everything. Cast on 352 stitches.
6. Started making the newly designed scarf. with the adjustments.
7. Didn’t like what I was making, but continued on for 40 rows just to make sure. Hated it.
   1. Blocked a section of the fabric. Still hated it.
   2. Scrapped the project.

A Summary of Frustration

First mistake was that  I should have continued swatching. The hours of time I put into a full-length scarf was a dumb idea I thought would save me time.

Yes, I should have checked the yarn weight first. It was in my stash drawer with other fingering weight, but it was sport weight.

Honestly, I knew right from the start that these two yarns didn’t work together. Two utterly gorgeous yarns (Bugga by The Verdant Gryphon) were muddied and or muted by the other.

Current Knitting

After abandoning a failed project, I didn’t have much appetite to design anew. I couldn’t even look at the gorgeous MCN yarn from The Verdant Gryphon.

So I found some ACTUAL fingering weight yarn in my stash that was truly gorgeous. I looked through my Ravelry designs I had published, and started a proven design.

It’s only four rows in. If you’d like to win a free copy of this pattern, anyone who guesses correctly which one it is will get a free copy of the pattern.

Send your guesses, with your Ravelry ID to me using this web form.