Exercise in futility

First the back story.  There is a special little girl in my life who is turning 5.  Last year I knit her a Roo Design Sweater with a cup cake on it.  I like to knit for her birthday.  When I asked her mom about knitting another pullover, she suggested a capelet because she gets warm easily. That nixes pullovers.

I did a Ravelry search for capelets for little girls and didn't find anything I loved.  What's a girl to do?  I designed one just for her. Here mom gave me measurements to work around.

Needless to say I didn't start this until a week before her birthday; well, actually it was Monday and her birthday was yesterday.  That part is ok, I don't see her till this weekend.

Being 5, it's all about purple and pink.  Obviously I went with purple.  The yarn is Bergereine by Bergère de France (DK: 50% Cotton, 50% Wool, 104 yards).  I designed it with a picot border at the top and bottom.  With a picot edge like this, I had to fold it in half at the picot row and sew it to the inside.

Merrily I knit along, taking notes as I went. I used two skeins down to the inch.  I ran out with 6" of the bottom picot border to sew.  Not worth going into another skein.  I knew I must have some purple yarn to finish sewing.  Unfortunately, the shades were off and if someone caught sight of the inside, it would look bad.  Then I thought, 'hey, I could use clear nylon thread'.  I was pretty pleased with myself.  This is where the fun begins.

You have to have a sense of humor when sewing with clear nylon thread. It may not look clear, but just try threading the needle. It's like an episode if candid camera. I realize that I am dating myself.

I took off my glasses better, sometimes that helps. There is nylon thread in this picture.  YOU try to find it. While trying to get a grip on the yarn, I thought maybe this is how Marcel Marceau got started in mime. Wait a minute, envision it:  Someone trying to thread a needle with thread, but there's no thread to be seen. It seemed like an exercise in futility threading that needle. Finally I kind of looped it in on itself.

Unblocked it was 14.5" wide across the top, 8.5" deep, and 30" wide at the bottom.

I soaked it in cool water for a while and then stretched it out to pop the eyelets and make it a little bigger.  I didn't need pins, it laid flat nicely. Blocked it was 16" wide across the top, 9" deep, and 36" wide at the bottom.

I'm going to run a narrow ribbon through the eyelets at the top as closure.  After the pattern is tested, I'll post it with a picture of the birthday girl.