Sometimes There's A Simple Solution

I've been working on several projects simultaneously, but one thing I've been steadily working on, in addition to the Granny Square afghan, is the little Shrug called, "Sweet Little Nothing Shrug" in turquoise blue and various colors from my homespun yarn. It is based on this free pattern. It worked up pretty well, overall, and took only two weeks to spin, then two more weeks to knit the garment itself. There was only one problem . . . the fact that the ribbing that ran along the bottom of the shrug kept flipping up in a really annoying manner. Guess I should have knit the ribbing with a smaller needle. Dang. I didn't.

I took it to the knitting guild Monday night, hoping that someone there would have a great suggestion, other than ripping it out. Several knitters pointed out that I probably should have done the ribbing on smaller needles than the stockinette portion of the body. Did you know that? Well, I didn't but apparently it's pretty common knowledge in the knitting world that you knit ribbing on smaller needles than you're using for the body of the garment. Save that suggestion for future reference, maybe. Not much help in my current situation.

Many people asked if I'd blocked it yet, why no, I haven't, because I still need to finish knitting the front ribbing before it's finished. But it was flipping so bad that I doubted even wet blocking would help. (I've had this flipped ribbing problem with another sweater one time, a pullover, and blocking didn't get it out). Grrr.

All week, I kept trying to come up with solutions - such as maybe crocheting along that bottom edge and/or put fringes of yarn down from the ribbing and weight the edge down with little beads. It would be a decoration, but would also weight down the material that wants to turn up.

In desperation, I took the garment over to Julie's house and she said, "Give it to me and I'll steam it." Steam it? Really? I've never tried that before. Yes, she has a steamer down in her basement. Ten minutes later, the shrug looked so much better. It was laying perfectly flat. Amazing!

Now that we've fixed that problem, the fringes and beading idea still sound appealing to make the shrug even cuter and more unique, and it's nice to know that steaming really is a good option. Wet blocking isn't the only kind of blocking out there. Nice to know, eh? And I went out to Mar-Becs and got one for myself - only $30, you can't beat that.

Edited to add: And now it's finished - I did end up adding the little beaded fringes of yarn that I'd come up with as one of the possible solutions to the rib flipping problem. Not bad. It sorta adds an extra cute factor. It's probably a little TOO cute for someone of my certain age - but what the heck, I'll wear it in good fun. I now call it my "Cha Cha Shrug."