Color Me Frustrated

You'd think by now I'd be able to just start a project and have things go pretty smoothly from the get go. Ha! But then I've only been knitting seriously for just over a year so I should cut myself some slack. My two current projects, Arietta and Capecho, are giving me a bit of a trouble but I shall persevere!

Arietta
I was so excited when I saw the new Arietta pattern at Knitty, designed with yarn from KnitPicks and so reasonably priced! But what's a girl to do when the recommended yarn can't be found in her country, but a great local cotton IS available in a rainbow of colors for even LESS money?!? So off to my LYS I went to purchase my first balls of Heela cotton. Retailing at 9NIS or about $2.25 with VAT already included, the price can't be beat. Groovy! So what's the problem? While Heela cotton may be have about 50 colors in their range, I can't find a dark enough beige, my color A. Here are the colors I bought originally. All in a pile everything looks great!

However, once I knit the swatch I saw very little contrast between the cream and the beige. Another issue I had was needle size. You can't find 1/4 sizes here so I tried this with a 3.5mm and wasn't thrilled with the stitch definition. Some of this is probably my fault, I've never knitted with cotton before and it is definitely not as kind on the fingers as some of the wools I have been using.

After knitting this swatch I went back to my needle stash on a hunch. Last summer I went "home" to San Francisco for a long overdue visit. One day my grandma asked me if I'd like some needles that had belonged to my great aunt (her sister-in-law) and pulled out a box with over a dozen needles (dpns, circs and straights). Well of course I said yes but they seemed quite thin as I was using 4mm and 5mm needles at the time. So a few days ago, faced with this needle dilemma, I pulled out a couple of pairs, placed them in the holes of my gauge ruler and lo and behold, they were 3.25 and 2.75, just what the pattern called for. By this time I had gone back to my LYS and exchanged the beige for a light chocolate brown. While I am happy with the stitch definition I am not so thrilled with the color.

I've played around with other color combinations and so far nothing. I will keep looking for a better beige and/or different color combos and keep you posted.

One good result of this cotton fever is that I am finally making the Wind Chime scarf from VK's Crochet Scarves On the Go. Although the pattern calls for Koigu wool, this scarf seems just right for spring and I am trying it out in cotton.

Capecho Update:
If you take a gander over at the side bar you will see that Capecho is down to 1%.
As you may remember my nearly finished Capecho was HUGE. We all know by now that VK erred ever so slightly when they described Capecho as close fitting (if you check their site they now claim only the sleeves are tight fitting.) Alas this info came a little too late. I had adjusted the chart to make it a 2x. There is nothing to do but start anew, and I have ripped out over half and started over, but with two significant changes.
Due to the true shape of this garment, I figure 2 sizes smaller should be fine. However, my yarn isn't quite as thick as the Berroco so I have decided to knit this up on 5mm needles. After completing a few rows I am already happier with the stitch definition. Because the needles are smaller I didn't want to go to the XL so I have re re-worked the chart for a 1x. The most significant change is the placement of the cables and the addition of a third, as I did for the 2x. As soon as I get my first pentagon finished I will be able to compare it to those of my first try and get an idea if this will work. I will post before and after pictures.

BTW, I hear there is some problem with the comments section. I haven't received any for my last two postings (perhaps since I changed the blog's format.) I have contacted Blogger to see what the problem is but in the meantime, if you do have any comments please send them directly to me at: tantej@gmail.com.