Thursday 25 March 2010

Nuts

You know how every once in a while, a person decides to go out on a limb? I think I am there. May already be too late. 

Vogue Knitting Spring 2010.  Fourth row down, Third project.  

Ethereal white sweater with checks of soft colour.  Nice, right?  
I. Want. To. Knit. This.

With its delicate simplicity it has captured my imagination.  I knoiw I am capable.  Technically, it is very simple.  Stockinette.  Raglan.  Piece of cake.  I have the needles. I'll develop the patience.

What I cannot do is afford the mohair.  Kid Silk Haze, though it is a fantastic yarn, with decent yardage for the price, becomes something else entirely when you need sweater quantities.  With Kidsilk Haze, I would need 7 balls of the pearl. Projected price:  $140.00.  I would need 4 delicate colours, 2 balls of each.  $160.00  Total estimated cost in Kid Silk Haze:  A stunning $300.00.  Not happening.   

I know that part of why this sweater works is the haze of the mohair.  The haze covers the colour work.  There aren't any significantly less expensive mohair yarn options that I would choose to work with so  I'm going to try it with a simple lace yarn.  

This is a partial swatch, to see if I liked enjoyed plain knitting with a very light yarn.  Seeing if I could develop a good rythm for those many miles of stockinette is part of the adventure.  Not too bad.

The swatch is going to continue but I am changing to the proper colour palette.  I want to see if the checked pattern will work.  Will the soft colours I have chosen show too much behind the delicate strands of lace weight yarn?  Will the colours work together? Will I still feel like doing this after I knit a significant swatch?  Will I have to toss aside the pattern, keep idea and knit a much smaller gauge to achieve this pretty effect? 

The yarns are assembled.  The swatch is well on its way.  It may or may not work, but I don't care.  I want to try and see where it leads.  

It will lead to a sweater, or to some really lovely yarn for the burgeoning lace stash.  Either way I win.  The only unrecoverable cost is a little time spent pursuing a dream.  

I can live with it, but there is still part of me that knows this is nuts.


3 comments:

Sigrun said...

I find myself in that dilemma on occasion. Then I rationalize: I'd rather have one very special $300 sweater than several Ok sweaters that are more affordable. Who am I kidding? I want them all. But I often leave it for a few weeks (till the next great pattern comes along) and if I'm still in love with it, then I go for it. Meanwhile I'm salting away the odd $20 bill to make it less painful when I buy it. At my age my philosophy is "You can't take it with you"

Sigrun said...

I just thought of another rationalization that I use on myself. I don't smoke ($300 is a pack a day for a month), I don't drink (don't know hwat booze costs), and I don't gamble. I KNIT!!!

Mrs. Spit said...

I'm with Sigrun.

But, baring that, I have some fuzzy alpaca that is all yours. . .