A Day at the Frog Pond

If only the Marx Brothers had filmed that movie -- maybe I'd be able to laugh a little harder at my own rip-it rip-it rip-iting!

So, after reading that Euroflax won't bloom after it's been washed, I frogged what I'd knit on size 4s and went down to size 2s. After knitting more than I probably should have, I discovered -- naturally -- I still didn't like the way the stupid fabric looked. Grrrrrrr!

So it's back to the frog pond for me, and now I'm wondering what to do next. Someone pointed me in the direction of washing the Euroflax before knitting with it, which should allow it to be knitted up more tightly than if it hasn't been washed. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, partly because the more I've been thinking about the intended purpose of this yarn -- placemats -- the more I've started thinking I may just break out the RH loom and weave the darn things instead of knitting them. A simple tabby weave will certainly go faster (or at least feel like it's going faster) than doing a fussy knitting pattern on size 0s, which is the direction this project seems to be quickly heading in.

So now, I'm stuck in a whole other direction. I was initially so excited about using linen yarn that I scoured the internet and found a place that sells in bulk, twenty cones or bags of skeins (either 1/2lb or 1 lb each depending upon grist) for $24 each. They also have the largest variety of grists I've seen in Euroflax, everything from the finest laceweight (14/1, 5200 ypp) to a nice heathered bulky (685 ypp). A friend and I decided to go in half and half on an order so that we're each only spending a slightly insane amount of money on this. I was toying with the idea of getting a bunch of the sportweight plus maybe a cone or two of 14/2 laceweight for a shawl, but after this experience with the placemats I'm now wondering if that's what I want to do at all. I can certainly see how Euroflax would make nice clothing -- I really like the top-down Euroflax sweater on the MDK blog site -- but I'm wondering about what grist I should get. Maybe a worsted weight would be better overall than sport weight? (And, to tell the truth, the Euroflax sport weight seems quite thin to me -- far more like a light fingering weight than a sport weight in wool would be.) And that bulky Euroflax is tempting, too. Although, of course, I could surely use the sportweight for a lovely shawl or two....

This is the problem with buying yarn without a definite project in mind, although I certainly had a project in mind for the sportweight and look how that's turning out. Suggestions, anyone?