On Wednesday, my project update post became more of a philosophical ramble about mystery knit-alongs, and some guidelines for participants. While those points were specific to the phenomenon of the Mystery Craft Along, they can have a broader application range. It all boils down to being kind, even in the semi-anonymous forum of the internet. Would you want someone else to say your comment to you? It may be the most relevant critique, but would you want to receive it in the form you are putting it out in the world? Having been on the receiving end of painful, anonymous, one-sided, and untrue critique, I urge caution and understanding, as well as the flexibility to hear the one you are chastising and make some adjustments of your own.
End Sermon.
Now for the real project update, a tour through my journey of the Muppet shawl project.
Unbeknownst to me, this project started several years ago when my Local Yarn Shop (LYS) CeCe’s Wool Yarn and More celebrated the inauguration of the first female vice president of the United States with a run of dyed yarn called The Ladies of the Inaugural. These were ten distinct colors, all based on various outfits worn by some of the women involved at the ceremony. The two colors for National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, were bright yellow for the coat she wore and red to match her headband. One day, I stopped in the store and saw a sales bin containing the remaining skeins from the color series, so I made certain to pick up an 8 oz “Yarn Baby” of the yellow. This yarn baby sat in my stash, not even caked up for months.
It may also behoove you to know, dear reader, that one of my favorite characters from Sesame Street was Big Bird. While yellow itself is not one of my favorite colors, perhaps that skein of bright yellow evoked nostalgic memories of that Bird. A few Christmases ago my youngest sister gifted me a book, The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch) by Caroll Spinney and Jason Milligan. For you who do not know, Caroll Spinney played both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. Oscar was my other favorite character.
Another fact that helps in this journey of a scarf is the knowledge that Sesame Street and the Muppets, as well as several other puppet-based franchises, are all part of the universe of the Muppets, created by the late Jim Henson.
Another fun note is that I have a blue fuzzy sweater-coat I call “Cookie Monster.” It was knit for me by my mom before I went to college. I laughingly say it took her “two World Series and an Olympic Games” to knit when people ask how long it took.
Therefore, when my sister (who gave me the book for Christmas) shared with me there would be a Muppet-themes mystery knit along, without knowing any of the requirements for the project, I knew two things:
The yellow yarn baby would be a prominent color, making my project distinctly Big Bird themed, to go with my Cookie Monster coat
My mottled brown yarn would make a good Snuffleupagus/Fozzie parallel
I needed to work in a rainbow (or I could try to trust the designer to get it right)
I need more green yarn.
I decided to be “good” and do a “stash dive” – this is when a knitter either proudly flexes the depth of their yarn stash by having enough on hand to make a project, displays their frugality by making do with what they have (which means we can go buy more yarn because we were so good to use up stash), or genuinely needs to make the economic choice by using what they have on hand. Truthfully, there are many varied reasons to dive into your stash for any project, and the snarky list I shared is only a small portion of the reasons. At the end of the day, you bought or received this yarn. Why not use it? It is also a truism that yarn collecting and using that yarn are two different hobbies.
I began to pull out yarns: full skeins, half-skeins, partials leftover from other projects. Then I checked the planning sheet, and thought I may have a too much reserved for the project. I took out the kitchen scale and reality hit – I was over double, nearing triple. There is such a notion as too much of a good thing, in this case too much good yarn, and too close in color. With that as my guide, I weeded down, and waited for the first clue to drop.
In the meantime, I returned to my LYS for their sale on socks for my partner… and I happened to see a bin of yarn remnants for sale at $3 an ounce. I had to rescue the poor yarn from obscurity.
With the new colors sliding into the project, I could more accurately represent more of the Muppets!
That is right, the project was supposed to be based on the Muppets. In my poetic yarn, waxing about wool, I nearly forgot the theme of the event!
As I knit the first clue, I pulled up a playlist of the old Muppet Show, and had fun traipsing through nostalgia lane, but by the third clue, with Holy Week and Easter approaching, I needed to knit in silence, rather than by the soundtrack of a comedy puppet variety show, even though it made me laugh to see the antics in their original form.
As I knitted, I noticed that my yellow background main color was making an interesting effect with one of the stitches, making a strange feathery texture. Even though it was made the same as the original, and even though it looked like it should be the same, Big Bird’s feathers made an appearance instead of Beeker’s Hair. In the next section of stiches, the same in clues 1 and 3, I was happy to be able to use pink and blue for the Sesame Street Martians – Yipyipyip – and next my Fozzie Bear ears were actually brown! I found this highly exciting.
Over the course of the project, many participants expressed displeasure when we learned clues one & three were the same except for color placement. I was also taken aback – why release them as two different clues? Why not simply say to all participants, “When you finish clue one, you may make another but reverse the color placement.” But then I thought of the designer who had put in hours of work to make certain the design reflected her dream, her vision. She does not have to do this – she could simply release the pattern as a solo pattern on her website, but instead she took the time to prepare it as a mystery.
What could I learn from the repeat? Would I do a more consistent job with the “yippie” stitch? What about the row of “pearls?” Animal’s drumsticks from the first panel are the Swedish Chef’s spoons on this, but it is the same stich. Would I make more mistakes or fewer? I decided to embrace the process.
My favorite story of this scarf though are the rainbow connectors. I did not follow the pattern for color placement. Shocking, I know, but I did not. I love the creations of anyone who did, but I had so many choices, I went off book, with the encouragement of my partner. In the rainbow area, each stripe is one color from the rainbow, and in the original, there are a line of “pearls” in the main color on each strip. Once I wrapped my brain around the idea, I thought, since I have so much yarn, could I preview the color of the next stripe in the pearls of the current stripe? I thought it could be a great idea, but when I started knitting this section, I began to use the main color on the pearls again.
Something felt off about it. I was three rows in and unhappy, so I showed it to my partner.
He looked at it and said something like, “why didn’t you have those dots preview the background of the next stripe?”
I confess, I glared at him. It had been my original modification idea. There was no reason not to do it. I just had not, and now I would have to “Kermit” three lines of knitting. I stalked off for a moment. When I came back, coming up the stairs, I announced, “I am changing it.” I carefully worked my way back to the first row of pearls, and redid the mess. There was something remarkably Muppet Show about the need to go back and redo, but I am very pleased with the result.
What is next on my needles? Several things, including, inspired by the shawl, I am making a Muppet hat! My reds will be my base main color for this creation, though. Then when I wear the scarf and hat with the sweater coat, I will be able to represent Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Elmo.
The real lesson is I need more green yarn.
This is such a happy, bright colored shawl and it makes me feel so happy!