Knitter's remorse

I've come to one of those belated "what was I thinking" flashes of insight.

After putting it off for weeks, I finally washed and blocked the stripey dress for Baby Jane. And I'm afraid baby Jane will have to wait for a new project, because I just finally started listening to that little voice in the back of my head saying, "Something is just not quite right..." This dress is taking a one-way trip to the frogpond in cement sneakers, if ya know what I mean.



Kinda cute, right? Also stiff as a board, thick, bumpy, bulky-seamed heinousness. Any baby wearing this dress would cry incessantly. This dress is so stiff, if she was sitting, the shoulders would hover around her ears somewhere. Not to mention that this nice, summery-looking cotton dress would be sweltering in the heat. Here's the story.

When I started getting very into knitting again a few years ago, I bought out someone's entire stash on Ebay. I paid about $80, including shipping, and I've been knitting with it steadily ever since. I've certainly made over a dozen projects with yarn from that stash, including Y's favorite sweater, two lace bookmarks from crochet cotton, at least three pairs of baby socks, and the list goes on. I decided to consider the cost of each project as an equal division of the $80, and each one (including the full-sized sweater) is now well under $10. Good deal!

There was a fair amount of crappy yarn in the stash, most of which I've given away at this point. But I always figured I could do something with the pink and white "Softball" cotton. This stuff is the kind that has a little thread wound around it that makes it a little wiggly (not sure what that's called). So when this pattern for a cute pink/white striped baby dress showed up, I thought: perfect! Here is where I am a dunce. This stuff is solid worsted weight. The ball bands even say to use size US7s. The pattern calls for Rowan Cotton Glace - a DK weight yarn - and US4s.

Here is where I have now, finally, learned a very important knitting lesson:

Just because you CAN get gauge with a given yarn, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Knit up on size 7 needles, this cotton could have been fairly decent, flexible, and soft (though I doubt I'll ever use it again - the colors are a little too cotton candy, really). On size 4s, it's just ridiculous. Not to mention that I KILLED my hands picking up the stitches for the edging. Silly, silly girl.

In my defence, I did cast this on at least a year and a half ago, and I've learned many things since then about yarn and helping each yarn find its destiny (like the Pippa yarn, which had been knit too loose for it's weight). The only shame is that when I picked this project out of a drawer a few months ago, I didn't immediately smack my forehead, say "Doh!" and rip the sucker, but instead thought, "Hmm, I've missed the boat on this one for Baby Charlotte, but wouldn't it be perfect for Baby Jane!"

Sorry, sweet Jane! I'll make you something nice, I promise! But believe me, you'll thank me for finally listening to that little voice and not subjecting you to this dress.