Thursday, April 06, 2006

Help!

I had been blissfully progressing on my wedding shawl, until I received yesterday's mail. I opened an unassuming envelope and found a swatch of fabric for my wedding dress. I was actually excited that this was finally arriving. But to my horror, I lay the swatch against the shawl and realized it doesn't quite match. It's subtle. The problems are twofold:

First, the problems in the yarn: the color in the yarn is just a bit more of a "cream," as opposed to the cool "ivory" of the fabric. And the texture is waaaay off. I had to buy the yarn without getting a second look at the dress, since it was from a spring line that I could only see at a trunk show. I thought I had a pretty good memory, but I'd forgotten that the fabric is so silken and shiny. I had in my memory a more matte fabric, which would be better suited by the alpacan fuzziness.

Second, I had underestimated how deep the texture is on the grosgrain ribbon. I'm afraid I really did need a geometric, clean-lined lace pattern. Print o'the wave seems to have too much going on.

Any thoughts on what to do? I can't decide whether I should continue with this shawl or whether I ought to begin anew with a silkier yarn and more of a geometric pattern (maybe even a clapotis in a silk-wool laceweight?).... help!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say keep going...UNLESS you believe you will be truly devestated with the results. It is a beautiful shawl, and I wouldn't worry about the texture not matching. Anything you knit is not going to be as strictly geometric as grossgrain ribbon. Regarding the fuzzyness with the shinyness - if you had it all shiny you would be Jem. They balance each other just fine. The color is the only thing that I would see as being even a tad "off" but frankly I say it doesn't matter. You can bring different whites/creams/ivories in with your bouquet and other decorations, and I think that gives it some depth. The look doesn't need to be all "dyed to match". But that's just me!

Veronique said...

I agree with Alisa. I actually like the idea of different textures: the rough graininess of the fabric and the ethereal, floaty quality of the alpaca... It's hard to tell from a picture whether the 2 off-whites are very different from one another.
Your shawl looks great by the way!