Project Notebook: The Cursed Ball of Yarn

As most knitters do, I have quite a stash, and some of it is pretty old. In the fall, I decided I wanted to knit some gloves for the girl (since her hands are finally big enough that I felt like I could stitch individual fingers without going insane) and I let her pick out the yarn.

She picked a ball of Opal Harry Potter (Ron colorway), which has been long since discontinued. Maybe there’s a reason for that, because this yarn has been nothing but bad luck for me.

The yarn itself is lovely, and I whipped up a pair of kid-sized gloves in no time.

And that’s when it all started to go wrong.

The first day she wore them to school she lost one.

So I knit another one.

I was sure we’d lost another one last week, right before our first snow, but I found it, thank goodness.

A while later I decided she needed some new knit socks, because her ones from last year are getting a little small. And I thought it would be cute to use the Harry Potter yarn again.

And though I measured and calculated and did all the things you’re supposed to do, she could not get the first sock on her foot.

The second one I think would fit, but the foot is too short.

So I’m still going to end up knitting three socks, just as I knit three gloves.

There’s some kind of dark magic here, no doubt.

Sigh. At least she probably won’t lose a sock. Maybe.

Have you had any exciting knitting adventures lately? I’d love to hear!

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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