Frogging Friday - Talia

Started: July 2008
Frogged: January 15th, 2009
The Proof:

Okay, so here's the story with what has come to be known as the Great Talia Cock Up.

I wanted to knit this vest because it seemed like a fun and still easy enough first sweater-like-object kind of project. The yarn that I wanted to knit it in was a chunky, super soft yarn known as Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky. The sheen was what drew me, that and the skwooshiness of it. It told me that the vest would look stunning knit up in all it's fine, nommable glory, and I agreed. So, I did a swatch - and that's what I believe was my fatal mistake. I actually, for the first time ever, knit a swatch and fiddled around with it until I got the needle size that would bring me to guage - a feat which I achieved on the second knit of the swatch. So, armed with the knowledge of my perfect guage I set out to make this epically beautiful vest which wound up being epically HUGE.

As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, it is large enough for both me and my SIL to stick our heads through the armholes like they were windows. It is large enough for both me and my SIL to wrap it around us and wear it together, at the same time. In fact, it was so HUGE, really, that it was obvious that it would only do as a Siamese Twins Costume for Halloween. I was so disgusted that I stuffed it in a tote and hid that tote so that I couldn't look at it even if I wanted to!

Originally, I was going to see if maybe I could fix the straps - because that's where both myself and my SIL believed the error to be. Then I decided that I'd rather re-knit the Talia vest in the yarn and needle size that the pattern actually calls for and instead, recycle this yarn for something else. Thus, the frogging.

It took a lot of work - especially since I tried to frog it backwards at first, but eventually I wound up with quite a few balls of recyclable, knittable yarn. And thankfully, this yarn seems to have bounced back quite nicely...despite the fact that it has been knit up for quite a while!

I plan on using the yarn to make a pair of these, and a hat or scarf (depending on how much yarn is left over - I might even make both!), to go with them! Aren't they pretty?

So yeah, I haven't been doing all that much actual knitting...but at least I've been doing some preparation. That counts for something, right?

Also, in other news, I've recently hopped onto a new bandwagon. The Toy Society is just such a great idea to me! I mean, how often can we really say that we get to give happiness to a stranger? Not that often for me, really...but I'd like to start.



And once he's finished, that guy's going to be my first drop. Think he'll make somebody happy? I hope so!

If you want to get in on it, then drop the folks at the toy society an e-mail (the address is on the blog itself) and you'll find them to be exceptionally friendly and quite happy to have you play along!