The Morgan Incident

I’m still a pretty new knitter.  I made my first knit and purl stitches back in September 2008.  In the past ten or so months I’ve completed a lot of projects, some easy and some a little more challenging.  (You can see them here.)  I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a good knitter, I’m just good at following instructions and at looking for help when I need it.  And, surprisingly, the past ten months have been mostly free of mistakes and disasters.  That is, until the Morgan came along.

The Morgan is a ivy-style driving cap that was featured in Fall 2008 edition of Knitty.  It is a great hat.  I really wanted to make it for my dad since he always wears those types of hats, and so does Baby Man.  And I wanted to make it out of something that would be warm and soft and wonderful, so I got myself some Ultra Alpaca.  Yes, the very yarn that taught me that I was allergic to wool and most animal fibres.  Not a great idea, true, but with a painter’s mask on, I was able to work with the yarn for up to an hour and a half at a time without much discomfort.

The hat moved along well, I thought.  It looked a little large, but I figured it would all work out nicely once things got folded and tucked around.  And then I got to the point where some of the hat went on stitch holders and I could try it on.  Well, it wasn’t just a little large, it was silly!  It looked a lot like those flat chef hats.  Hardly the stately “old fart” hat I was going for.

So, the Morgan has been frogged, the yarn wound into two balls.  (Yeah, I figured this out just after the instructions call for breaking the yarn.)  The extra skein has been returned for store credit, to be spent on some sensible cotton or a magazine, I’m sure.  And the Morgan will be banished from memory… unless I decide to try it again in acrylic or a nice cotton/linen blend.  But not for a little while.

I’m still not sure what went wrong.  I had no trouble with the pattern, and my stitch gauge was right.  I suspect it may have ultimately been a row gauge problem, but I didn’t think to check before I frogged it.

Now I am left to consider what to do with the skein of Ultra Alpaca in a lovely dark grey heathered colour.  It is in two balls, but the whole skein is essentially still there.  It has been knit with, or at least the large ball has been, but the yarn still looks great.  I was thinking of making the South End Knitter’s Hat (Ravelry link).  But whomever I gave it to wouldn’t be able to wear it around me.  (“Here’s a gift to show how much I care about you.  But just don’t come near me!”)  And, really, it is hard for me to work with this yarn; even with a painter’s mask my throat still feels raw after a little while. Not to mention how it makes my hands feel.

I wonder, would anyone out there be interested in it?  Shall I hold another draw for it?  Let me know in the comments if you think that’s a good idea.