Dis-Illusioned

Well, the Snowflake Illusion scarf has turned into a swatch of nearly indeterminate pattern. What happened...

I decided to use Brown Sheep Company Lamb's Pride Worsted in Creme and Prairie Fire, which calls for Size 8 needles to get gauge. The pattern did not specify yarn, but the designer said she also used Size 8 needles. The yarn inspiration came from the Alien Illusion scarf in Stitch 'n' Bitch.

Problem #1: Gauge was supposed to be 4-1/2 sts per inch, but mine was 5 per inch. Doesn't sound like a lot, but the yarn is pretty thin, so I think it may have made the pattern too loose. The Alien Illusion designer used Size 7 needles to get gauge, so I think when I try this again, I'll get smaller needles.

Problem (OK, maybe only to Oren) #2: The online pattern, as Oren noticed when he finally looked at it, calls for an eight-sided snowflake. According to Basic Chemistry as he remembers it, unusual snowflakes can be 12-sided, but the majority are only six-sided. Don't ask me to tell you how; I last took chemistry in 1991. Look it up here.

Oren's solution: Draw me a six-sided snowflake pattern. Handy having a handy husband.

So off we go...

And what we arrive at is the snowflake pictured above, which actually turns up better in the photo than it does in real life.

Problem #3: Per the warning in SnB, one side of the swatch pulled up tighter than the other, leading to one edge that curled up and was shorter than the other. Hence the peppermill yarn weight in the photo.

The BIG PICTURE problem (#4, but who's keeping count?): I twist my stitches. Every. Single. One. Gasps of horror out there in blogland...

Twisted stitches will be blog post dos on this topic because there are larger issues with this.

Me, with larger issues??? Ha.