The purses for attendants

Sometimes brilliant ideas should be banned from my brain cells. I saw this cute little knitted clutch pattern at www.knitty.com called Best Friends, and got the idea that if the bride-to-be was so inclined I could make these for her attendants and she could present her "attendant's" gift to them in it. Assuming she was planning to give them a piece of jewelry like I thought was still the going thing to do.

Well Jen jumped on them! She loved them! See how brilliant i can be? Well, little did I know that waiting until you could afford the $48 a skein of Joseph Galler Pashmina would be my downfall. See the problem comes from the fact that www.knitty.com is a very popular online site for a great free knitting magazine. So everywhere I went trying to get the Pashmina in Blush (the color that will make the apple green attendant's dresses "POP" and also the color used in the pattern online) I ran into the same answer. We have every color of Pashmina except the Blush. Sigh, a day late and a couple hundred dollars short has new meaning to me now.

Finally, I found a place with just one skein in stock... SEND IT! Dyelot matters not to me! (I can see another post coming after I find out that indeed I will not get the two promised clutches from one skein of yarn, can't you?) So I receive one skein in the mail last Wednesday and cast on for the gauge swatch on thursday at work.... three swatches until I got gauge. Now why do you have to do gauge swatch in stockinette and the pattern is a cable clutch? WELL, I got gauge alright in size 1 circs versus the size 3 circs recommended in the pattern.

Cast on, I do for the actual clutch body and go to town..... and soon I am just all excited. These will go very quickly, tis an easy repeat to recall, and then.... I get this......




Well it is a bit hard to see but my only idea of my mistake is unintentional short-rows and those are hard enough to achieve when trying to form the heels of socks...... So as these for for gifts from another person to yet third persons I rip back and cast on again...... and get this.............








Blurry yes, but it is indeed a different swatch, see the short row looking mistake is now to the right instead of to the left?
So .... yes I cast on again! And am knitting merrily along some while at the hospital awaiting the pleasure of my mammogram (long other story maybe some day because we all want to share the pain) and realise this is NOT looking big enough to fill the area suggested by the lovely silver metal clasp handles that came in on Friday of last week during all the mistakes...... Sure enough measure it up and it is only 4" wide. This piece should be blocked to 5 1/2" well I might get 5 out of it but will Pashmina hold a stretched block of over 25% of it's beginning size? mayhaps not?

So what am I doing about it? I decided to continue to knit this piece and see if when I get to about 5 or six repeats it actually fills in a bit better. After all, I got gauge so it must be right, right?

Hope all of you have a lovely day and hug your loved ones today .....

denise / de-Brat recovering from extremely sad news yesterday regarding people I did a commission huppah/quilt for in 2003 for their wedding.