We knitters in Lansing (Michigan) are making Comfort Bears for the Police Department. I have written about this here before. The bear pattern that I wrote to assist the project is called Fast-Finish Teddy (Free Version/PDF Download Here).

Bears are being knit using any pattern the knitter wishes. However, since I did the presentation at Schuler Books (scroll down), many folks are using my pattern.

I wrote the pattern to be very, very easy. There are cuter bears (though I think mine’s adorable). However, I am willing to bet there are not easier ones to knit.

There are three versions of the pattern out in the wild. There is the version I handed out at Schuler Books, which is no longer available, because of two newer revisions. There is the free PDF version linked above, which is 5 pages long and contains all instructions to make it easy for someone who knits regularly.

And then there is a 7-page printed version of the pattern. It contains many more photographs, and explanations of every technique in the pattern, including how to make a knit stitch. It includes photos saying “it should look like this before you bind off” and such things. I’m currently using that pattern to teach High School art students to knit.

Right now, you can buy that Enhanced pattern, printed in color and in a page protector, at Rae’s and Threadbear (links below). One dollar of each pattern sold goes to EVE (End Violent Encounters), an incredible charity in Lansing which has helped two women I know personally.

Bears are being collected at several Lansing-Area shops. These above are some of the ones at Rae’s Yarn Boutique, made from my pattern. She had many more which were knit in other designs.

Local friends, you can also drop bears off at Threadbear Fiberarts, Woven Art (East Lansing), and Yarn Garden (Charlotte). If you are not a knitter or crocheter, they are accepting sewn or purchased bears as well.

The first bear pickup is scheduled for June. There is another pickup in December, and the plan is to keep knitting for this project continually. Unfortunately, I am afraid that there are more kids in sad situations than the number of bears we can reasonably knit. We are giving it a good old college try.

I am particularly fond of the face on the white bear at the bottom right. Isn’t that big nose and smile, just perfect??? The kids I teach to knit at the shop, pictured above, are very fond of the large brown bear at the back. It’s made of very fuzzy, very fat yarn on big needles. Adorable.

Susan just finished my Chippy Socks for Kids class. She took it at Rae’s Yarn Boutique and went home on Thursday night with just a bit of the first sock’s toe to complete. For some reason, I did not take a photo as I often do.

Monday, I got an email from Susan telling the rest of the Chippy Sock story (she gave me permission to use it here):

Good news.  I finished my first chipper sock Thursday evening.  Finished it as soon as I got home.  The instructions were great and I had no problem finishing it up.  The sock “looked” (operative word “looked”) fantastic.

Now for the bad news!  Friday morning I came out of the bathroom after having my shower…and my niece’s little dog Bentley ran up to me so happily only for me to see that he had my chipper sock in his mouth.  Yikes.

He looked so cute though that I couldn’t be mad at him.  I just thought “Well….my cue that I need more practice”  Oh well.  Life is too short to get frustrated.  My philosophy…if no one dies it can be fixed.  Unfortunately the sock cannot be fixed (he chewed on the cuff where the sock started and nibble a bit down.  I’ve still shown folks my chipper sock (I’m so proud of it) and am going to start on a new one tonight…(snip)

I thought you might enjoy the story of my chipper sock…

For the record, I named my socks “Chippy Socks” because they seemed like potato chips, I could not stop at merely a pair. (There are six socks in a set.)

Recently I released the pattern for a child’s cap which coordinates with those socks. It was not intended to knit in multiples, so I named it Chipper Color Cap (C3) to imply they were related.

Unfortunately, this two-name thing is causing some confusion between them for my customers/students… which does not bother me in the least. I’m showing some of the photos of that cap here, one shown with three of the six socks Ewe-niss test knit for me when I was developing that pattern.

I feel a need to thank every single person who has ever purchased a pattern of mine, who has read this blog, who has taken a class from me. I want to thank every shop, every guild, every fiber festival, every library who has hired me. Thanks to the galleries who have allowed me to display my work.

Last night I was doing bookkeeping before bedtime. I allowed myself to worry a bit. I like to say that “worry is not action,” but sometimes it sneaks up on me when I am not paying attention.

This morning I woke up, and I’d sold several patterns and a Fabulous Heftones CD on my shopping cart while I had slept.

I am very sure I am doing work I was meant to do. I get thank you notes frequently. I can feel the magic in the air when I teach. I see the proverbial “light  bulb” go off over folks heads while I explain new concepts to them.

And people I don’t know, continue to knit my patterns, order my patterns, support me on the merits of a web page’s presentation alone. I am grateful. I am humbled.

Back to my life’s work. Thanks, again.

We must do what we conceive to be right and not bother our heads or burden our souls  with whether we’ll be successful. Because if we don’t do the right thing, we’ll do the wrong thing and we’ll be part of the disease and not part of the cure. ~ E. F. Schumacher

(Photos are Kim’s 2nd Maxi ZigBag, Mary’s Chippy Sock and Gwen’s polymer clay beads. All students in my classes. They inspire me to continue doing what I love.)

I have much in my life for which I’m grateful. First and foremost is my husband, Brian, but I’m happy to say that the list is long.

Yesterday I got an email from someone I don’t know. She is a knitter who bought my Fast Florida Footies in 8 Sizes Pattern, years ago, and who has knit the pattern multiple times. The note just thanked me for the design, and said she’s not done knitting these yet. How kind of her to take the time to write.

This morning, I opened my email and there was another thank you. It was from a student who took my Chippy Socks class this recent past week. She felt it was just the thing she needed, which turned her day around. How wonderful is that? Again, I am touched that she took the time to let me know.

Last night, I went to my PO Box. Not only did I get a check from a customer, but I got a fat padded envelope. It was a gift from a woman who has taken my computer classes numerous times over the years, but who I have not seen in several months. I just love her, I miss her… and then I get a gift from her out of the blue. How incredibly heart-warming! (Thanks, Z!)

In the envelope? An Andean knit hat. The real thing. I’m bowled over. She has me pegged to a “T.” Many people think of me when they see many colors together, and I am honored.

However, if you get down to details, there are some multicolored things that are “me” and many that are not quite. My knitting obsessions are Turkish socks and Andean hats. This gift is spot on, and something hard to find in Michigan, to boot. I’m busy looking at the details, trying to figure out how it was made.

The hat seems to be knit from the bottom edge up to the top, and from a preliminary look I think the ear flaps were picked up and knit to the point, flat. Then the edging which looks like checkerboards appears to have been knit separately and attached. I wonder if it was attached with crochet rather than sewing, this is what I think at first glance.

I wish I had Deb Robson, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Nelda Davis to look at this hat with me. They uncovered so many mysteries about my Turkish Socks and a bit about the few Andean hats I had when I spent time with them at Sock Summit last August. Deb could tell on one sock that the knitter had changed not only to another white ball of yarn, but a totally new fleece. Amazing.

Lately with the car expenses, I have allowed myself to become a little  more afraid than I normally am. I think that when one has fear, one must balance action to address the issue causing it, with action acknowledging what one does already have. I’m a lucky person with a fine husband, good food, and a roof over my head.

So tonight we sing at a benefit for the Eaton County SIREN shelter. They turned away over 500 families last year. I am grateful I have never been in need of housing/shelter. I know I’m not better than any of them, just luckier. (They deal with domestic abuse and homelessness, which sometimes intermingle in the same family). I am glad to be part of the assistance they need and deserve.

If you are in the Lansing area, perhaps you would like to come to the event? It will be an amazing show, four performing acts in all… and you will help a fine cause, as well.

Some of you remember that I knit a self-portrait a few summers ago. It was a bit of an internal growing experience to get through the self-doubt that all artists have at times, and complete the project.

Coming out at the end with something that actually does look like my face… in 10,374 stitches, 11 colors of yarn… well, it’s something I am proud of. I am thrilled that there have been places for me to display the end product.

I’m pleased that it got a lot of display time that first year. My piece was at Susan Hensel Gallery in Minneapolis first. Then it was displayed at local yarn shops, both Rae’s Yarn Boutique where I teach each week, and Threadbear Fiberarts where they had a customer art exhibit (that one got in the paper, a lovely article indeed).

After that the portrait was also displayed with a Working Women Artists show at the East Lansing Public Library. I was pleased. After all, I don’t plan on doing another one of these, it required I put my work and life pretty much on hold for several weeks while I knit (and crossed fingers and toes that it would work out).

Well, starting Sunday May 1, my self-portrait will again be on display, with a lot of fine hand-created items from a lot of other creative folks. This time it will be for the “Gathering of Guilds.”

This show has been organized by the Grove Gallery Co-Op on Grove Street in downtown East Lansing. It is directly next door to Woven Art (a yarn, knitting, weaving, crochet shop) and across the street from the Grove Street Parking Ramp.

There is a “First Sunday Gallery Walk” show open house at the Grove Gallery Co-Op location on Sunday. I think it will be exceptional. There will be several guilds involved:

Greater Lansing Weavers Guild
Lansing Area Patchers
Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild
Mid-Mitten Basketmakers Guild
Capital Area Lace Makers
Mid-Michigan Art Guild
Clayworks
Greater Lansing Potters Guild

Details for opening reception:

Sunday, May 2
Noon-4pm
325 Grove St., Suite A
East Lansing, Michigan
517/333-7180

I will be there. Maybe some local folks will come out and say hello? I expect a wonderful, artful, friendly crowd.

Hi, everyone. For someone whose goal is 28 posts a month, I am not hitting my goal right now! This is my post number 2,915 since November 2002, but it is my first one in a week.

Gratitude

My car is now in the shop for 2 weeks and I’m to call them Tuesday for an update. I’m thinking it will be 3 weeks without a car, at least.

However, this has allowed my friends to love me with service. It happens that my furthest commute is to Haslett once a week (ten miles one way, requiring 3 buses). This two weeks happened to be between terms, so I did not have to worry about that. I have been able to ride the bus a lot (and our system is quite reliable).

I did one round-trip to downtown Lansing (not quite 5 miles, total) on my cool old 5 speed Schwinn Suburban. Last year, I did not ride the bike once. It was pleasant to get her back out on the road.

Things are intense but fine here. I am well again, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. It is spring, and absolutely lovely to look at outdoors.

Friend Rae loaned me her car to go to the doctor last week when I was quite ill with a sinus infection. Friend Altu loaned me her car this week to go back for a checkup. You can not know what a gift it is to have a car for an hour or two, during a week which is otherwise car-less. The first week, I got a few groceries. The second, I went to the bank. Those trips were much easier with a vehicle!

Friends Melinda, Kelley, April, Altu and Kim have offered rides at different times. Mind you, most of the time, the bus works great… but some trips are a lot more hassle than others. Going to Rae’s shop and back is a breeze. Most of my life is lived on the East Side between Rae’s shop, Frandor and Altu’s restaurant. So most of my life is easy to handle by bus.

But you know, in the scheme of things, this is just fine. I do not have a long term illness. I have the prospect of  a vehicle again in a week or two. It is spring here, so waiting for the bus is pleasant. I have knitting in my purse, and can do that while I wait.

Project(s) Update

Since you last heard from me, so much has happened. The Lansing Comfort Bear project is going nuts. There is a nice article on the Lansing State Journal website about our event at Schuler Books. (It was in the Thursday paper with a photo of me teaching, but the online article is missing that photo. I’m fine with that.)

The article does not mention that Berroco Yarns and Rae’s Yarn Boutique donated yarn, Rae’s donated needles, and I donated patterns and teaching expertise for that event. Rae, Anna and Barbara from Rae’s offered teaching assistance, also donated. (Anna took the two photos here, while I was teaching.)

Whitney at Schuler Books did a great job of publicity and hospitality, as well. The project started not long ago thanks to Kristi Garcia, and it’s growing like weeds! It took a team to get this moving, and we are thrilled.

I have created a simplified version of the pattern to be distributed for free as a PDF download. That version can be accessed by clicking this Fast-Finish Bear Free Version link.

For those not inclined to download and print, or those who do not use the Internet, there will also be a photo-enhanced version with instructions for even non-knitters to get started. That one will be printed in color on good paper and in a page protector, for sale at the shops. The price will be my standard $6, but $1 from the sale of each pattern I will donate to EVE (End Violent Encounters). EVE is an organization which has helped two women I know, both with children, get out of a bad living situation and into new, healthy lives.

I am on the brink of an adorable child’s cap pattern (had hoped to release it yesterday but literally fell asleep with computer on my lap). I helped a friend with her taxes, and the Habibi Dancers‘ annual show and workshops are this weekend. (Photos below taken at rehearsal Wednesday.) I am over busy but all is well.

Signing Off, for Now

And with all that distracting me, I didn’t say hello to all of you. I’ll be back with more when I can. Meanwhile, focus on gratitude and let go of those things over which you have no control.

Hugs from Lansing, Michigan.

I am delighted to say that I have finished the first complete bear from my new design. My pattern does not yet have a name. I had one I really liked but it may not be unique enough. Knitting proceeds without a name.

Lansing Comfort Bear Project Event:
Schuler Books
Rae’s Yarn Boutique
ColorJoy by LynnH
Berroco Yarn Company

The Berroco yarn company is donating yarn for our event at Schuler Books Eastwood. You can read about the project/event on the Schulerbooks site. We start on Tuesday, 04/06/2010 – 7:00pm.

The kits include a pattern donated by me, yarn from Berroco and Rae’s Yarn Boutique, needles from Rae’s. There will be free kits to the first 50 people who arrive. Those who come after that, will get a free pattern but will need to bring US size 4, 5 or 6 needles and washable yarn in Worsted or Aran (slightly thicker) yarn. You only need about 50gm, a small ball, of yarn, to make a bear to my specifications.

My Teaching-Friendly Bear Pattern

On April 6, I will have 2 hours and a crowd, within which I will need to teach folks to make this bear. It will be a breeze for experienced knitters, though not too boring because you repeat nothing longer than 12 relatively short rows.

I made the entire bear with only five “stitch instructions:” Cast on, knit, knit 2 together (decrease), Knit in front and back (increase), and bind off. There is simple shaping. The shaping happens in very specific, repeatable ways which I designed for easy learning/doing.

The instructions we will hand out will include not only the pattern, but how to do those five instructions (some with photos) and photos of sewing the garter stitch edges together.

I will do demos of all five knitting actions, and also demo the sewing. This is the simplest of sewing, and with a bit of visual assistance from me it should go very smoothly.

The Event Itself and the Free Kits

The yarn coming from Berroco is a new one, which I really enjoyed using. It’s called Weekend… a cotton/acrylic blend which endures endless ripping and reknitting, and is washable.

We are not including any supplies for embroidering the face. I used sockyarn for the face, which I also used in the optional tie. (It is sewn onto the bear securely, for those who always remind me of child safety.)

I am rather pleased with this first bear. I did make part of a bear as a prototype before starting this one.

Tuesday night I received one skein of Weekend yarn from Rae. I then made this start to finish, including ripping and writing and rewriting the pattern, from Tuesday night to Saturday night.

I was totally focused on finishing the bear, for some reason. Obsessively. As in, skipping meals and not sleeping until 3am.

I’m happy with the embroidery of the face. Rather than trying to sew over the bumps and pretend they are not there, I used them as anchors for my stitches. I guess that is a little like needlepoint or cross-stitch. It worked. Of course, other faces (or none at all) will also be comforting to children in distress.

More Bears

I am now working with significantly fatter yarn (rated at 2.5 st/inch rather than the 4.5st/inch specified for Weekend). The new bear is so dense (on size US 6/4.25mm needles that it is hurting my wrists a bit, I need to rest a lot. However, the new one will be a much  bigger bear. I’m making this one for a special child in my own life.

Back to my knitting!

I seem obsessed with a project I did not expect to do, a week ago. Now it is nearly done. I am amazed at how this has all progressed…

The Schuler Books charity bear event will be in about 10 days (Tuesday, April 6, Eastwood Towne Center, Lansing). I will be teaching a group of folks, with varying skills, to knit a bear for the police department to take out on calls. The bears are given to children in distress.

These events turn out people from expert knitters to not-knitters-quite-yet. I need instructions that will guide the experienced knitters on their own, and allow the beginning students to join in the fun relatively quickly.

I looked for bear patterns that might work. So many of them call for shaping that is hard to explain, or require knitting on double pointed needles, or require understanding flat stockinette (knit one side, purl the other side, know which side you are on at any given time). There were lovely bears out there, but none that seemed workable for my event.

There will be a number of free bear-knitting kits given out to the first attendees of the event. Last time we had free knitting supplies, we had 70 participants. I just had to make it work.

SO, I made my own bear pattern. The photo today is how the parts looked this afternoon, before I sewed/stuffed/embroidered it.

I spent hours last night working on the instructions for the actual knitting. Today I spent more time getting it better, and adding instructions for cast on, knit, increase, decrease, bind off.

For some reason, once I started I could not stop. Part of it is that I’ve promised a good number of people I’d work on other things. I have Study Hall students waiting for my beginner-knitter hat pattern. I have Thursday night knitters (at Rae’s Yarn Boutique) waiting for the multicolored baby hat I put together for my new niece.

And then I got going on a bear. He was quite out of order and took control!!!

Pictures of the full bear tomorrow.

My friend April picked up knitting when she had a very small child. It turned out quickly, that the child wished to grab at the needles no matter if they were on a table or in Mommy’s hands. Mommy stopped knitting.

Five years later, the kiddo is in school. Mommy is missing kid. Mommy has time to herself for the first time in a long while. Mommy wants to knit again.

She found the project she started five years ago. It was actually done except for the working-in of ends. I helped her learn how to do that. I also helped her start a legwarmer project. (We are dancers, legwarmers can ease leg cramps on bad dance days.)

May I present to you, April’s first project? It’s a baby hat, knit off the cuff, one step at a time given to hear verbally by me. It helped that she lived across the street at the time. (Sigh, those were good days for me.)

I had plans. First, do taxes. Then, start working on a much-requested hat design (knit many times but not written in pattern form).

Well, then we got a new niece. I knit her some Chippy Socks. Then I got inspired and knit her a hat which was inspired by the socks. SO: I was going to do that hat pattern. First. Then I would do hat #1.

Um… then I ended up starting a design for something else entirely. “One can not buy passion,” right? Or that is what I’ve said for years…

At least I did the taxes…

My mother is a talented woman with a sewing needle. She also is a great teacher. She taught me to embroider when I was in elementary school. She taught me how to fix a run in a sweater using a crochet hook. And she also taught me to darn socks.

This was in the mid-1960s, when you could still buy cardboard tubes of darning floss at the store. It came only in boring guy-colors as far as I remember, but it was basically several very fine threads held together flat, like a ribbon. It made for a very smooth and flat repair.

In those days I knew only one way to fix a sock. Typically, the sock had a true hole all the way through the fabric. I learned how to make a woven patch over that hole, using the flat darning floss. It did not occur to me that others might not know how to do it.

Fast-Forward to years of working in corporate America. I had to wear a skirt every day to teach computer classes. I did not want to wear synthetic nylon hose (it’s like wearing a plastic bag, if you ask me). So every time I was in a large city, I would seek out sock stores or large department stores with huge hosiery departments. I collected black or gray cotton hose to wear for my work. (Photo here is “The Sock Man” on St. Mark’s Place in NYC’s East Village.)

Sometimes I did not get to go to a city for a long while. Sometimes the hose would get holes in the feet. I could not just run down to the local mall and buy more cotton hose. I was desperate to avoid wearing 100% nylon hose. So I darned the hose using sewing thread. It was really worth the effort, given the comfort these hose gave me on the job.

Fast-Forward again. I knit my very first sock ever, in spring of 2001. I knit over 30 pair in my first year. That first year I did make 11 pairs for friends/family at Christmas, but lots of those socks were for me.

I do what they tell you not to do. I don’t wear shoes in the house, and I do not like shoe-like slippers. So I wear my socks “bare” against the floor in my home. I do have a lot of socks, so each one does not get a lot of wear each week. However, lately more of my knitting is for work samples and I can not wear those socks. My own sock drawer is one thin-fabric display.

I learned since I started knitting socks, that if you catch a sock before it is totally worn through, that you can strengthen the fabric using an embroidery technique called “duplicate stitch.” You actually sew through the path of an already-knitted yarn in the sock. It is a more stretchy and less noticeable patch underfoot. Since I discovered this, most of my sock repairs are handled this way. I try to notice the state of my socks as I wear them, so that they do not get a hole all the way through.

The first photo above today shows a sock I knit in “Magic Garden Buttons” yarn, DK weight (the yarn includes little specks of yellow, red and blue, and is great for kids’ garments and semi-thick, washable socks). It got one full hole, which I patched using pink sockyarn in a woven technique. It also had some thin yarn in another spot nearby. I strengthened that with duplicate stitch in green.

I teach darning classes quite often. One need not be a knitter to learn this skill, though it seems handknits are more worth patching than store-purchased socks. I have a fondness for patching in unmatching yarn. It shows more (though the patches fit inside my shoe) but I smile because I feel happy I know how to do this, and that I get to keep my handmade creations in use for a long time.

I have scheduled a Darn that Sock! class at Rae’s Yarn Boutique in Lansing, MI on Thursday, April 1, from 6-8pm. You can register for that class online now, at Rae’s new website: Register for Darn That Sock!

I am also waiting to hear from Threadbear Fiberarts about a weekend date for the class at their location. It will probably be on a Friday night, sometime after the class at Rae’s.

This weekend I did not have any classes to teach. I spent Saturday washing every piece of fabric which goes on our bed, and darning socks, and watching TED.com videos for inspiration. It was rather more domestic than I usually am in one day, but it is a delight to repair my “babies” that I knit and had to set aside. I got 4 pairs darned (most in more than one spot) and also fixed 2 sweaters. Score!

On March 7, the day was so gorgeous I took a walk. This was the day I found a tiny blooming flower in my yard.

There is a school near our home. I decided to go on the swing set for a while. I have always loved swings, though it seems that an adult body is never going to be comfy in a sling seat!

I slowed down my swing and sat there for a while, watching kids play basketball, younger kids climb the equipment, and a mommy walk a couple of dogs. I had an impulse to take a few photos, and held the camera out with my right hand. The angle could not have been better, just look at all that red lined up so nicely!

For the knitters, I am wearing a “Bloom Shawl” by friend Trish Bloom. It was knit in the original yarn, Noro Blossom. This yarn was discontinued but there is a very similar yarn now offered by Noro which really works well. LOVE this design.

I’m holding a Chippy sock, still in progress, in my hand. It is earmarked for my new niece (who is a tiny thing).

Here are a few other photos of the area. Remember, this was the same day I had a flower blooming. We definitely have a warm spot on our own lot. Most of the area looked white like this!

I found three places on my almost-two-hour walk, which had large areas of grass rather than snow. One was my own south-facing side yard:

The other big one was another corner lot, another south-facing area. I see a trend.

I feel lucky. I am *not* a winter girl. To be gifted with one of the very few patches of green, is a real delight. To find a flower the first week of March? Incredible. Lucky me.

Our family just increased by one. I’m now an aunt, again.

The little girl is merely 5 lb 8 oz as of Wednesday. She is a week old today, Saturday. The sweet girl is well and beautiful, and the parents are glowing. (Tired, but glowing.)

I have made a point of not knitting for Brian’s side of the family. There are so many people, and I don’t want anyone to feel left out. I can not possibly knit for everyone and still run a business that has to do with knitting.

But this week I broke my resolve. I know these parents very well and I adore them. The world needs more families of this commitment and caliber.

Here is the result of my weak moment:

(Chippy Socks for Kids. Size Infant-0. Debbie Bliss Rialto and Filatura di Crosa Zara. Size 2 US Brittany Birch needles.)

No, I do not have a photo of the baby. I will have to ask permission to borrow one someone else took before I put up any images. Trust me: she is delicious to look at. I’m in love and I haven’t even met her.

Friend Cynthia and Friend/Shop Owner Rae checked over my Olympic-Season sweater project Tuesday. We all 3 see the same thing. The fabric of one piece is different, in texture and gauge, from the other. Both are the same yarn and the same exact needles used. One is smoother, with a smaller gauge. One is fuzzier and gives larger stitches on the same needles.

Rae says there was more than one shipment of that yarn to her shop over the years she carried it. Clearly the reason my swatch was a smaller gauge than the sweater, is that I used an old lot for the swatch and for the second piece of the sweater. Here is how much I’ve completed thus far (before stopping on a dime, yesterday, when I saw the mismatch):

The newer yarn (for which I have two extra 100gm balls, no shortage) is fuzzier and fluffier. It’s the same number of yards per pound but it is knitting at a fatter gauge than the one “oddball” from which the swatch came. Sigh.

Thank goodness the colors match almost exactly. I have made the decision to make the tighter-gauge piece be the back of the sweater. If I sit on it a lot, maybe it won’t stretch out as much being the firmer gauge, I can only hope.

What I will do is what others sometimes do when they have color mismatches in dye lots. Starting now, I will alternate two rows of one ball, then 2 rows of another, until I run out of the oddball. Then I will continue with the new ball, which will match the front and sleeves.

It just does not look different enough to rip and restart. I guess it’s like an ice skater who falls and continues their program. It is not 100% but continuing is part of being an Olympian. Or that’s how I’m justifying it today, anyway.

Here is a comparison shot. The top piece is what I have 7 balls of. It’s fluffier and fuzzier, and the gauge ended up bigger. The bottom piece, can you see that it’s just plain smoother? The stitches are definitely smaller, though for some reason the “garter rib/pearl rib” makes the gauge over the stitch pattern less different than knit stitch compared to knit stitch.

For the record, if this were a sample that the public would see, especially if I designed it? I’d rip and re-do. However, this is something for me to put in my closet and wear. Someone else designed it. You might say my “name” is not on it. Compromise is in order.

Here is a photo of the two yarn balls next to one another. Can you see that the top one is less fuzzy, more shiny? I think the colors are very, very close, but the textures are quite different.

Live and learn. Back to the needles…