Ms. Marigold Finished

Ms. Marigold finally finished blocking last night - the rainy weather doesn't really facilitate speeding blocking. Here she is.

The Details:
Pattern: Ms. Marigold, available at zephyrstyle.com
Yarn: Elann Sonata in Ruby, 4 balls with nothing to spare
Verdict: So-so. I like the pattern but it was a frustrating process. Here are my gripes with this one. I thought the pattern lacked some guidance. For instance, I usually double check and keep track of my stitches anyway, but before joining in the round, after doing all those increases, there was no guideline for about how many stitches should be on the needle. I ended up counting and doing the gauge math, realized that I had about 30" of fabric around, even though I was knitting the 34". So, I added on some extra increases before joining in the round.

My other major gripe was that I ran out of yarn. Twice. I used up my 3rd ball before even getting to the bottom border, which I did in seed stitch instead of rib. So, I ordered 1 more from Elann, thinking that would be plenty. Wrong! I finished the bottom (added some increases to allow for my hips) and v-neck border and had only enough yarn to crochet 2 rounds over the ruffle, not 4. In a perfect world, I would like this to be a little longer, I would have knit the 36" size and I would like enough yarn to have rufflier ruffles. I might knit this again with some modifications, but overall I'm pleased with it (I wore it to work today).

Some more shots:

In other knitting news, I scored some Cascade Indulgence on sale ($5.70/ball, regularly $9.50) from Knot Another Hat for the Embellished V Neck from the new VK. And, Stitches East is coming to the Baltimore Convention Center November 2-5. There are supposed to be lots of vendors at the Stitches Market - has anyone ever been to one of these? Sounds like trouble for my wallet!