Denali is go

As soon as I could unearth some 8.00 mm needles, I was off.

The yarn and the colours are wonderful. The pattern leaves something to be desired; the presentation could be better, the wording is open to interpretation and there is at least one actual error that I am certain of.

The Broomstick Lace sections are difficult, or should I more properly say cumbersome, to do as the wraps tighten around the cable, making it difficult to move the stitches up onto the needle points. Knitting on straights would avoid this problem but they would have to be inordinately long straights! It is fair to say however that the first set were the worst to do, using the Wigwam cotton tape. Other yarns have been easier to handle and they all seem to vary by degree.

20 rows done

Some errors

Left to Right and Back to front ordered A to K

A Cotton tape, Wigwam in Morocco

B Wool and Bamboo Art yarn in Dark Umber

C Mohair blend Bouclé Hoopla yarn in Cinnamon

E and G Zanzibar in Heather and Mist

D, F, H, I, J, K, Mohair in shades Mist, Cinnamon, Heather, Moss, Umber and Pink Tweed

The yarn pack

I have introduced some errors of my own:

When I first ordered the yarns into the yellow tray I read the key from the pattern booklet as though it were in alphabetical order and it is not. I only noticed this just now when putting the yarns back after taking photographs of them. This means that my stripes will now be differently ordered.

I could go and put them back in the wrong order and continue as set but I have only completed 20 rows of the first 66 pattern rows. I am minded to do it right from now on.

Another error that I made, and I don’t know how it happened or exactly what did happen, was to get my rows out of sync such that I began the pairs of rows on one side, then somehow swapped to the other. I must have done one or three rows somewhere where two were required.

I’m not sure that any of this matters or that a degree of random activity is likely to have much detrimental effect on the finished throw.

The yarn changes mostly after a pair of rows. This means that there will be billions, trillions, gadzillions of ends to sew in at the finish.

Twenty rows done –  measures at 16 cms of an intended 135 cms, making me more than ten per cent done after one session of knitting. It’s not going to take long to romp to a finish, which is good because I need the needles in order to kick off the jacket that I am going to make with the Velvet Damson pack. But it’s not going to get knitted if I continue to sit here at the keyboard all day, is it?

Denali Throw project at Ravelry