…is no reason to rip it out because some other fool idea has wrestled you to the ground, wrapped yarn tendrils around your brain, and has refused to let go.
So.
I started making a Lightning Shawl, one of the 10-stitch variant family of patterns posted by Frankie Brown.
I only have two skeins of Noro Taiyo Sock yarn. That’s barely enough to make a skimpy shawl. You can see I’ve got five strips done. I have enough yarn to complete about eight pattern strips (and maybe a bit more) – a couple strips narrower than the ten strips specified by the pattern.
You can see that I was pretty far along, well into my second skein, and the growing shawl looks pretty good. The drape is nice too. In fact I’d recommend this yarn for the Lightning Shawl, but preferably 2.5 or 3 hanks, so that the final piece is of generous proportion. But I digress.
This afternoon after knitting on the thing for a whole week, I ripped it out. Every stitch. All that’s left is a pile of yarn balls and my two needles.
I’ve got this mad idea that I have enough yardage here to make a cropped, boxy vest type thing. And I want to do it somewhat along the lines of my Taco Coat:
Now this isn’t going to be as huge as the coat (that’s big enough to be a blanket with sleeves); and I probably will make it in one piece rather than a right and left, joined at the spine. But it will use the same idea of the outside edge and in working logic. The first strip will proceed from the shoulder into a wide V-neck, and down the front center, then mitered at 90-degrees, across the bottom of the hem and all the way around the back, returning to the front, climbing back up the front center and ending at the opposite shoulder. If I do this right it will work out not unlike a Surprise Jacket, with the only seaming being across the top of the shoulders..
I have no idea if this is going to work or not. Nor am I going to draft up a pattern before I begin. I’m going to cast on for that outermost strip, and as I go, compare it to a t-shirt with the boxy fit I am looking for. And then just wing it.
If nothing else, this project (code named Samosa Vest*) should make for some entertaining reading here, with lots of Doh!-moments and a few painful lessons learned.
* Just because. I am in India, after all, and a first cousin to the Taco Coat should also have a wrapped-snack-food name.
String-Or-Nothing 
I didn’t realize you are in India. That is so interesting. I liked what you started with the scrsp yarn. The colours were beautiful. The project you decided to do instead sounds & looks good. Is there any way you can get more yarn to add to your project? I have lots of a variety of yarn tgat I haven’t decided what to use it for, & none of it is more than a year old. I would be willing to send you some if you let me know the type & colors: my treat. You can e-mail me your address if you are interested. I’m sure India has a nice selection, but it probably costs a lot. Good luck with your project.
Yes – we’re still in India. We’re in the final stint of a two-year expat posting (the Resident Male went first, Younger Daughter and I followed six months later, with Elder Daughter remaining in the US at university).
Thanks for the yarn offer, there’s really very little here to buy. Even the Indian silk yarns and other products we see in the US are export-only. But please don’t bother sending anything. Mail here is notoriously hit or miss. Except for documents sent via expensive International FedEx or DHL, no packages sent to me from the US have arrived.
I’m a short timer now, and still have some of my initial stash brought from home. (This explains why I am re-knitting rather than finishing off and buying more yarn for a second piece.) Thanks again, though!