Felting and Clapotis musings

Well, I've recovered from my state of shock over finishing the Ballet T yesterday morning and I'm back to my normal self. I even managed to wear the t-shirt yesterday, despite the stifling heat (which taught me that despite Rowan calling this yarn 'all seasons', it isn't really meant to be worn when it's something like 30 degrees...). Of course today it's much cooler and raining too, so it would be a much better day to wear it. But then, I might still do that!

Yesterday evening I managed to knit another few rows of The Sock, but no more pictures yet.

This morning, I finally threw the little swatch that I made with some blue 100% wool Hermit yarn in the washing machine. I bought the yarn off ebay a while ago and I'm hoping to use the yarn for a French Market Bag (knitty), but so far it's being obstinate and refuses to felt. I've run one 30 minute cycle on 90 degrees and have just thrown it in again for another 30 minutes. We'll see...

While I'm waiting for that to happen I am sitting here, drinking my third cup of tea this morning and, instead of contemplating starting today's work, I'm musing over my half-finished Clapotis.

Truth is, I haven't liked the yarn I've used for a while now. Or rather, I like the yarn - quite a lot, actually - but I don't like it on the Clapotis. The colourway of the Noro Silk Garden is too drab, too dark and muddy in colour, and also too stripy. Now I am contemplating frogging the whole thing (and my heart aches just thinking about all the hours of work that went into it), and using the yarn for a cardigan. I saw some lovely cardigans in the Noro Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Pattern Book. I particularly like Karsro and Marielund, which, as far as I can see, would both be possible with the 500g (10 balls) of Silk Garden that I have.

But this still means frogging my Clapotis... My heart bleeds and I suspect my fingers would too if I decided to go ahead. I've found the yarn quite rough to work with and dropping the stitches was quite difficult because the yarn felted together really easily and the strands didn't want to let go of each other. But what is there to do? I am more and more convinced that I wouldn't wear the Clapotis much as it is and I still have quite a long way to go to finish it so it does not seem worth it.

Also, then I would be free to start Clapotis over in a different yarn, one that is softer and has smaller stripes. Maybe I should go with the recommended Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb after all - I LOVE the look of that yarn but have never seen it up close because it is so expensive.

Decisions, decisions...