The Vagaries of Yarn Substitution, or How I Finished Early!

I thought I still had another repeat to do and the extra half but I was getting worried :o( It was going to be too big. This is my take everywhere, wrap up at the coast shawl, it needs to be voluminous but not too big to wear. It needs to be practical and comfortable and gorgeous and to make people covert and want to knit. It needs to be big enough to wrap small children in as you carry they back over the dunes and they start to shiver in the early evening fret. Will it be a blanket? Will it be a double blanket.? How many more rows? Surely not! That can't be right can it? You have no idea the relationship that is developing between this shawl and the tape measure, it is bordering on indecent *gasp!* Have I read this right? have I knitted on alien size transforming needles? Is my tension really THAT far out?

To that misgiving I added the feeling I have had since starting the Emily that she is really a DK and not a 4ply/sock yarn/sport weight thing. Lovely, nonetheless, and it would be more than a little hypocritical for me to be churlish about a little extra weight *shock*, but still a definite DK. Check the label again, it says sock. hang on you do get DK sock yarn don't you? Have I assumed too much?

So I stopped, well, actually I tinked back two rows to finish where the pattern says to finish for DK and then I did the picot cast off last night. I love that cast off it's great. But I couldn't stop half way so I had to keep going until 1.20am *bleary eyes provide evidence*. I still love that cast off, so simple, so zen.

Today my task was the i-cord. Could i remember how to do it? A diagram might have helped here, but it came back to me as I knitted,and although it seemed miles to the end at first, it quickly passed (also in a Zen like way) and was complete. This time believing myself that this is a DK I chose a very large needle compared to the too small needles I have knitted the rest on *rolls eyes*. USA 13s in fact, and I was at some points in doubt as to whether these would be large enough. I guess I wont really know until I block the beast. The i-cord on Grandma's bed jacket (!) at Christmas was too tight and prevented larger blocking, don't want that this time, so extra stretchy i-cord (achieved through extra loose stitches on huge needles) was the order of the day. And although the change in needles was alarming at first they soon settled into their rhythm and I studiously avoided looking to see how very far there still was to go along that neck edge. Soon we were passing half way, the large needles, dwindling yarn and I and suddenly we were done. I have to confess to splicing in another ball, but only used a couple of feet (if that) so I count that as 800yds in total.

And the funny thing is, no matter how many times I measure the beasty I am now not sure she will be big enough. I am sure she would have been too big if I had kept going. I do know I have two full skeins of yarn left (which I am still not sure I love, although I know I like) and I have no idea what to do with it. I do believe Emily is DK not 4 ply. But have I done the right thing in casting off all of a sudden and on a hunch that she is big enough and will grow enough with the blocking? I do not know. We will see.

Pictures? What now? Before the beast is subdued by the wires? No! Surely not.

Tomorrow night I block, and tomorrow night I will take lots of photos, but for now, wait, be patient. I am having to be. I have tried her on, laid her down and looked at her, pulled her and stretched her and measured her and guessed about her. I have read and reread the pattern to see if the secret is there. But tomorrow I will know!