When is a shawl not a shawl?

When it's a wrap, no a little girl's poncho, maybe a poncho with armholes, no not that either. Maybe a cowl... oh, I don't know!

It had all started out promisingly enough.  I had an idea for a new pattern.  Yippee.  (I've been having lots of ideas lately, all very exciting.)  Even better, this idea that I'd had, I could make from stash yarn.  Double yippee!  The idea was for a lovely colourful shawl or wrap that I could snuggle under in the Autumn months and that would be bright, colourful and cheerful and remind me of the beautiful summer garden scenes that we are fast leaving behind.

So far, so good.  I started making flowers and deciding how they should all join nicely together, a sort of trellis come leafy background that would show the flowers off nicely.

I toodled along on this little project quite merrily, despite it not moving along any too quickly, when it started to become apparent that I wouldn't have enough of the nice green 'background' colour to make the shawl any where near a decent sort of size.  Oh dear.

A quick perusal of the internet showed that it was going to be no simple matter to track down more supplies of this yarn.  I'd got it on sale as a discontinued line originally anyway and that was no small time ago.  Humm, what to do?  

It was whilst I was laying the thing out and bemoaning it's lack of size and my lack of ideas of what to do next when an unlikely muse popped up in the form of Little Miss.  She started playing with it and wrapping it around herself and stated quite casually how nicely it covered her up and what a good size it was.  

Out of the mouths of babes eh?  That was the answer!  I would join the shawl up into a round and cinch in the top to make a poncho for the darling child.  I was off into action again with a new plan and freshly excited to see the outcome.

I beavered away, joining flower to flower, adding a nice border to the edges and top to pull it in to sit nicely on her shoulders and called her in for a fitting.  She waited patiently for my verdict, and although it did fit her quite nicely, it came down too far and was too restrictive, she couldn't really lift her arms very well.  It needed armholes.  

I turfed the child out and set off again, unravelling this time and removing and re-edging.  It didn't take too long and fitting number two was called for.  Oh dear me, no.  Not at all right.  Back to the drawing board with the wretched thing.

I brooded for a while on what was to be done and moodily started on another project, leaving the offending article abandoned until such time as inspiration decided to strike.  As a day or two passed by it seemed to me that the only thing to do, would be to make it into a cowl.  Suitably snuggly for Autumn and of course, still nicely colourful.

So I've undone all of the armhole undoing and replaced and made good.  I've added on  a simple edging and there it sits all done.

I have to admit, I'm not a huge cowl fan, so I don't know how I feel about it yet.  It is nicely bright and colourful and I do love all those flowers nestling in the leaves.  It looks better than I thought in cowl form too.

I kind of prefer wearing it as a little poncho/caplet type thing and maybe that's a good thing, that it can be used as both.  But, it's been a difficult little bit of business and it'd be a lie to say I'm still as happy and excited about this little idea as I was at the beginning. 

I'm really not sure what to do next.  Should it still become a pattern?  I do love the potential of these bright flowers, they do make me happy to see them in photos here.  That makes me feel a little better about the business I must admit.

Maybe I should just wait until I can start it all again from the beginning with enough yarn to make the shawl I originally thought of?  I can't face that at the moment, but it might be best.  Maybe I should publish the cowl pattern in the meantime?  Maybe I should just wait and see how the mood takes me in a month or so? Or should I just write this one off and forget it ever happened?

What would you do dear reader?  It'll be nice to have your opinions, goodness knows I don't know what to think about it anymore.


S x