I Killed the Cotton Blend

Murderer! Apparently it is possible to "kill" your yarn and I did it, though I will plead to manslaughter since there was no intent to "kill".

This morning at my LYS, a fellow knitting aficionado, began showing me the finer points of using the mattress stitch to join garment pieces. All at once I had an epiphany, this garment looks too wide and short. I panicked. I already knew that the length-wise gauge was off, adding one more diamond shape would have gotten me to get the proper length, but let's face it...we don't know what we don't know. I had already decided that a half shirt was perfectly acceptable and my daughter, the intended recipient, would likely wear it to the beach with her blue jeans. A quick measure confirmed my newest fear. The garment that I'd been loving working on, frogging, re-knitting, measuring and toiling over grew 2 inches in girth. It was a tragedy! Did you get that? A TRAGEDY! "How could this happen to me?" I asked.

Then all at once I knew...it measured up correctly BEFORE the blocking process. Now, I have no choice but to admit the unabashed truth. I have been using a short-cut method when it comes to "blocking" my knitting. When I want something to lay down properly, I take my trusty steam iron and go right after the unruly article. Once upon a time, I would wet two kitchen towels then apply the iron but soon discarded the pretense of the towels which seemed to serve no real purpose but definitely lengthened the process. Apparently there was some underlying wisdom to blocking technique and I had to learn the hard way. My chosen yarn was Weekend by Berroco, a cotton/acrylic blend that knits up nicely. My partners-in-crime at my LYS, explained that acrylic is p-l-a-s-t-i-c, and when you apply heat to acrylic (a.k.a. plastic) it loses it's shape, bounce, and essentially...its life. ARRGGHH! Who knew?

Yesterday, visions of my masterpiece arriving on my daughter's doorstep flashed before my mind's eye. I felt so complete, so "at one" with my art form and so fulfilled as a mother. Oh well, back to the drawing board. And would my daughter have been as pleased as I visualized. Likely not. Here's a reminder...keep it real, Tina. Keep it real. Did I enjoy knitting? Yes. Did I learn something? Oh, most definitely. Am I willing to give up this activity because I muffed it again? Nope. I'll take my lessons learned and keep on a'knittin'!!! Here's my new motto going forward: Be Kind to the Cotton.

FYI: LYS is short for local yarn store