Monday, August 27, 2007

A One Colored Web

Back in April, or was it May? time flies when you're just knitting along . . . Rosie's hosted a Charlotte's Web Along. I had no interest for several reasons. First, it was after work on a Friday. Now I know, there are many of you out there that are firm believers that there is no such time that is a bad time for knitting. But, let's face it, Happy Hour is a bad time for knitting. The second reason, I'm not all that fond of Charlotte. I had heard rumors about the screwed up charts, rumors usually joined with expletives. And, as much as I love Koigu, I'm not the biggest fan of mixing and matching skeins. But, I think the true sticking point was the fringe and the crochet edging. I'm willing to trip back to the 70's for a poncho (see below), but fringe? Not for me.

But, try as I may - I got sucked in. Judy, who doesn't have a blog, and I can't link to her, but she can be found at Rosie's on any given Thursday, picked her colors, cast on - and I would like to say she went to town, her needles flew, her lace laced up - but that was not the case. Every day in my email, there was another question about the chart - sigh, I broke down and cast on.

Because I was only casting on in solidarity, I wanted an easy knit - no switching colors, no weaving in ends, no hassle, no nonsense - just straight up the chart for me. So, I went with one colorway , and I think this is my favorite Koigu colorway of all time. You may remember seeing it before when I started Eunny's entrelac socks. The shawl took about four skeins, maybe less, and I still have one skein left, so I'm thinking about doing a matching hat, and being all matchy matchy this fall.


I also completely abandoned the crochet/fringe edging, and opted for a picot bind off in a solid color, olive. I still have about four skeins of this olive stashed away, and I'm thinking of one of Cookie's socks.

For Koigu purists, I'm sure this Charlotte is an abomination, an affront to all things Koigu. I know that part of the beauty of Koigu is too mix and match skeins, paint color landscapes, and kind of throw caution to the wind. Personally, I just think there's so much going on in one skein of Koigu, why mess with perfection? Maybe I'm just rationalizing about being too lazy to switch up the colors, and weave in the ends, maybe I've done a disservice to loyal Koiguists, but I think it looks pretty good.

13 comments:

Lisa said...

I'm with you on the edging. I think the picot bind off is fabu! And doing it in one colorway in no way detracts from the design.

Liz K. said...

Uh, why can't the Koigu mafia just let your Charlotte be yours, and those crazy-color people be happy with theirs? Why do people care if we knit just like them? Hmm?

I do like the picot edging. I think the fringe has been turning me off from this shawl all this time too, but I never quite put my finger on it.

Donna said...

Looks great! Who cares what the Koigu police have to say.

Wear it well :-)

Tracy said...

Just perfect and beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous!!!! Gotta love Koigu!

Ellen said...

It's a great shawl - after all, you have to wear it. And now that I've downloaded Firefox, I can read about it without burning my eyelids off. What's the number of billable (to you, at lease) hours on the shawl?

Dorothy said...

I think it looks great! I like it better than some of the mix and match ones I've seen around and you are absolutely right about fringe. No thanks.

Wendy said...

I must say that I too did not mix and match for my Charlotte last year. I also abandoned the fringe for a simple crochet edging. I like it MUCH better that way. I love the colorway you picked :)

Unknown said...

Your edging is great! I've made 4 Charlottes (I'm on my 5th) and have never done the fringe. Sometimes I just do SC crochet and leave it or a picot edge.

Lori H said...

I agree that your one colorway looks stunning -- so much beautiful color in your shawl. I'm with you about the fringe -- looks great!

Anonymous said...

I agree...mixing different skeins never seemed right to me either.

I love the finished shawl...it's gorgeous! The edging is the perfect touch too.

Elysbeth said...

Very gracious and lovely. The picot edge gives it a very tasteful finish. I think the one colour option allows you to enjoy the lace more, instead of your eyes looking only at the palette.

WandaWoman said...

Oh, no, I totally love the charlotte you've made. I think Charlotte is a beautiful shawl, but I've never been too much into making it with all the colors. I much prefer it with one variegated color myself. Yours looks good and the olive is a great contrast.