So, as I was saying, I knit one of Hunter’s Curls a few weeks back. Now, one of the (many!) awesome things about Curls is that you can use just about any yarn, in any weight. The idea is that you choose your needle size to get a fabric whose drape you like, then you keep on knitting until the Curl is the size you want.
Assuming, of course, you have enough yarn.
I started out with a hankering for Pavonated, and two skeins of Malabrigo Finito. I love Pavonated’s stitch pattern – both sides of the fabric offer deep, inviting texture; each side is unique. Combined with the Finito on 3.5mm needles, the fabric was just luscious.
But two skeins of Finito only amount to 400 yards. When the yarn supply threatened to run out, I bound off… only to discover that my Curl wasn’t as generously-sized as I’d hoped for. And with its relatively modest size, I couldn’t quite figure out how I’d wear it. Nothing I tried seemed to click.
What to do? Getting another skein of yarn in the same dyelot wasn’t likely. Aggressive blocking would destroy the stitch pattern’s wonderful texture. My choices seemed to be (a) live with a smallish Curl, or (b) find another use for the Finito and re-start the Curl in another yarn.
Yeah. So I chose not to choose; I put the Curl into an extended time-out.
Until yesterday. I chose to accept the Curl’s small size, and set out to block it. And, ironically, it grew. Dramatically. The fabric simply relaxed far more than I expected, even with the gentlest possible blocking. (Serves me right for not test-blocking a swatch, I guess.) I’ve lost some of the deep texture, but my possibly-too-small Curl is now Just Right.
casually draped with wide end at back and curly bit in front
probably my favorite wearing option: a secure half-hitch
Update: Hunter has graciously offered to give the winner of the Curls give-away a copy of the electronic version of the book. So you get the physical book, and the ebook with links to the patterns’ stitch maps. Win-win! But remember: you have to comment on yesterday’s post to be entered to win.
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