I finished Picovoli last night. Or I should say, I finished it as much as I could. I ran out of yarn. It’s about an inch short. And of course I picked the last 5 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton Color #186 there are, on earth. Isn’t it just my luck to pick a discontinued color, that NO ONE HAS?

But really the lack of yarn really isn’t my problem with the shirt. I should have known from the beginning that I wouldn’t like it. I’m knitting on gauge, the yarn is a good match in weight to Debbie Bliss Cathay, and I’m just finding the fabric to be too firm. I knit this whole thing on 5’s. (And this is were I get to talk about my needles. I bought a size 5 32″ addi turbo for this project. There were rough spots on the needles, so it was like fingernails on a chalk board! I had to stop every few rows because I was being driven insane!!! Finally I borrowed some needles from the store, because, of course I bought the last size 5 32″. I have to send them back.)

Another thing that I should have thought about was the rolling. I just don’t think rolling like this will block out. I should have done a folded hem, although it would have been bulky with this dense fabric. I also planned to do longer sleeves but the lack of yarn nixed that.

Finally, it flares out too much at the waist. I could easily fix that, with fewer waist increases, but it won’t matter. I still won’t like it. There’s nothing like knitting a whole garment, just to try it on to see if you like it.

So here’s my plan: If I can stand to look at the yarn again after all the hours and hours and hours I’ve spent with it, I’m going to rip the whole damn thing out and start over. I’m going to knit a raglan tee-shirt style shirt with folded hems and a more open raglan “seam.” I’m going to knit it on 8’s too. And I’m NOT going to run out of yarn and it IS going to fit.