Friday, June 09, 2006

Is it just me?

For Christmas, my sister gave me a gorgeous ball of recycled sari silk yarn. I do mean gorgeous. As in bee-yoo-ti-ful! The colors were deep and rich - burgundys, reds, fuschias, teals and even a bit of lime green. I was totally enamored of it. It was big, too - 249 grams!


For months it sat next to my desk, where I could gaze lovingly at. I'd pick it up and heft it in my hand, marveling at it's weight. I'd turn in over and over, admiring the deep, rich colors and drinking in their beauty.


I'd dream of different projects to use it in, never settling on one. This had to be used in something very special. Something that would show off the beauty of the yarn in all it's splendor.

The silk had been spun into a delicate yarn - somewhere between fingering and sport weight. Oh, how I longed to knit with this lovely yarn, but still I held out for that perfect project. Finally, I decided on a simple shawl. I'd use the same pattern as I'd used on my lovely green silk. It would be perfect!

Excitedly, I set up my ball winder and swift in the family room and proceeded to wind my treasure onto the swift. I wanted to see how much yardage the skein actually held. As I wound, the colors began to change and lighten. How wonderful - the silk was graduating from dark to light! The light in room was not very good, so I couldn't quite make out the details. No matter, I'd soon be able to examine it fully under my Ott Lite.

On and on I wound and then, oh darn, a knot. No matter. I'll be able to work around that. Then shortly, Rats, I came across a complete break in the yarn. Ah well, no matter, I'll just start a new yarn cake. Deciding to forgo measuring the yardage, I started winding the yarn from the swift to the ball winder. I could hardly wait to start knitting!



I finished winding the first ball and began to wind directly from what remained of the original yarn ball. As I gazed at the ball I'd just wound, I could see that there was a very noticable difference in color between the two balls. Hmmm, would I start with the lighter color at the bottom of the shawl and end up with the darker, richer colors around my shoulders or vice versa? I wished that the lighting in the room were better so that I could see what the lighter colors were.

At last, I finished winding and took the 2nd ball off the winder. This second ball was bigger and felt a bit different than the first one. Excitedly, I made my way to my Ott Lite, sat down with my treasured yarn and turned on the light.

Hmmm. Is it just me or is there a difference between these two balls?


What the ...??? Are my eyes deceiving me? If I hadn't just wound these balls myself, I never would have believed that they had come from the same ball.

I slumped to the floor in utter dejection. My yarn, my beautiful yarn - it was all a lie! All these months I had treasured it and it was all a deception. A few yards of beauty wrapped around ugliness. "Oh, the humanity!", I screamed to the heavens. My dreams were gone, my hopes for a beautiful, richly colored shawl were dashed.




Hmmm, what can I knit with a small amount of furry string?

5 Comments:

Blogger sloth-knits said...

Wow, that's awful! Is the good part of the yarn long enough to knit into anything?

By the way, I loved your Amazing Lace team profile!

6/16/2006 5:10 PM  
Blogger sloth-knits said...

Yikes, I just read the "few yards of beauty" bit. Maybe a hair tie...?

6/16/2006 5:12 PM  
Blogger Lindsey said...

For now I've just put it aside in disgust. I've got a whole lot of sock and lace knitting to be done!

6/19/2006 11:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmm...this looks like the same entry I saw in AK

6/27/2006 6:27 PM  
Blogger Life's a Stitch said...

I knit a Fleece artist scarf alternating a thick row with a thin - very pretty.

From the "L" two above you in the Amazing Lace.

Li in Vancouver, BC

7/25/2006 4:57 PM  

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