Duck Now - Because I am going to Rant!

But only about yarn. In fact  about one specific yarn. 

In a recent fit of guilt, or adventure, or just being sick of seeing/tripping over bags with part done knitting projects in them I picked out my longest outstanding Ravelry project determined to finish it. I say Ravelry project advisedly because some of my unfinished works pre-date my joining the site and some of my other unfinished or started stuff never got on there in the first place. 

Anyway this particular thing was a wrap with a very simple lace pattern which dated back to 2017 (!!), and the reason it had been abandoned (because there always IS a reason) was that I had gone wrong and I wasn't sure I could find where I had made the error or, if I found it, whether I could put it right. But you know, I've been knitting for several more years since then, and I have done some other lace, although I don't know why because I do not have a gift for it, and I thought it would probably be a matter of taking it back a couple of rows,  and then racing to the finish. Because it's not a sizeable thing. 

Ha, ha! 

I had to take out about ten rows and as they were all over 200 stitches long that took me quite  a long time. However I did eventually get back to  a place where I recognised that the pattern and the number of stitches I had on my needles actually coincided, and instead of pulling stuff out I could now start knitting stuff on. Which was good. 

I got past the point at which  I had started to pull out and that was progress so I was a happy kitting bunny. Until this happened 

In several places the yarn started to fray and then break. It wasn't under any particularly tight tension, it hadn't weakened due to my pulling it out because we were well past that part of the ball. It was just wrong. And though I seem to be temporarily past the problem who knows that it won't happen again further into the ball?  I now feel I have to be constantly on the alert for places where 2 ply becomes one and make sure I place no tension on the stitches in those places. They aren't long enough, and they are too frequent, to justify cutting and rejoining, they're one or two stitches only. But it's very frustrating. 

Since there is very little pleasure left in knitting this I have reduced my time on it to  two rows a day which means it's an awfully long  way from being finished yet. The yarn has a beautiful sheen and it's very soft and warm ( as it should be since it's 80%  kid mohair) but however lovely it is  I wouldn't use it again, ever. You can say what you like about Rowan's kidsilk haze, but at least it doesn't self destruct when it sees a knitting needle.