Knitted Object #2: The Boucle Shrug (frogged)

Boucle shrug. Why yes, it does look like a rug more than a shrug.

My second knitted object was going to be a shrug. Well, I mean, it IS a shrug, if one has a very loose definition of the word shrug. It bears a much closer resemblance to a bathmat than a shrug, if I'm honest, and I don't think I'd ever be seen dead in it. I'll be unravelling it as soon as I work up the energy.

Creating it was something I did on kind of a wing and a prayer. It's the amalgamation of two separate free Ravelry patterns. The first was a pattern for a Boucle Wrap. This provided me with the suggestion for the knitting needle size to use with boucle to get a loose open weave. It actually is much looser than this photo suggests -- the boucle aspect of it makes it look thicker and more tightly woven than it is. I got the size requirements from a Basic Shrug pattern.

However, that Basic Shrug pattern has a border and this desperately needed one as well as otherwise, as you can clearly see, the edge curls under and it looks uneven. It was also too short -- I don't know why this should surprise me in the slightest because I already alter everything else, ever, for my height, so why would I not increase the stitch count as well? Doh!

More generally though, as an item of clothing this sort of cocoon shrug just really isn't my thing. I might as well wear a snail shell for all the charm it has to me as a knitted garment. Again, I should really have realized this before I ever started because it's not like I don't know that in the normal run of things I wouldn't wear it. However, I was mad keen to knit SOMETHING, and so I hurried on with this regardless. Not my best idea.

It was FAR from a total dead loss though. There are dodgy stitches and tension problems here and there, but the knitting part of it actually went rather well. It gave me lots of practice on large, easy to use needles, and I discovered that I find knitting amazingly soothing. The nice thing is that unlike a sewing fail, where all resources are lost as a result of any disaster, with this I can just unravel and try something different another time. 

The thing I am really struggling with as a novice knitter is knowing what to make, especially since I really just don't like woollen outerwear like hats or scarves in any great quantity. I bought a pattern for a sweater vest with a nice scooped neck but now I am struggling with even making the gauge square so I think I may have bitten off more than can chew... again! Making something I'd be willing to be seen in in public seems a very long way off!