Help me choose: WIP it or RIP it?

You may recall I was all set to resurrect a WIP from earlier this year – Calyx Hat by Debbie New – to make a multi-coloured tea-cosy for my daughter’s teacher (on request!).

There was the small matter of re-jigging the maths to make it fit a tea-pot, rather than a head; but that was easily got round.

That this led to the inevitable ripping of said WIP and casting-on again of 490sts was a mere trifle! (Though credit must go to MazzleDazzle’s patience and tolerance, as she sat through un-ending  and repeated counting with great humour: casting-on copius stitches at knit-night is not conducive to chatting – or so I’ve learned.)

Once the cast-on stitch-count was triple-checked (with stitch-markers in place like there’s no tomorrow) the actual knitting was very quick: one evening’s sitting, in fact. The sewing-up was an altogether different matter, however; but we’ll come to that later.

The lobes come together

After I cast-on I showed it to my closest friend at work. Her initial reaction was that it was one very big tea-cosy! When I explained, quite literally, the “ins” and “outs” of all the lobes and the stitch-markers to her, being an architect she noted that it was just like how insulation was indicated in Construction drawings:

Which, we agreed, is quite appropriate, considering a tea-cosy is insulation for a tea-pot.

A stripe too far

So far, so clever. Then, that minx, Hubris, came to the tea-party and spoiled all my fun! As I was happily sewing-up the lobes, I created a mathematical imponderable – a twist that would not go away.

At the same time, I fell out-of-love with how the Noro striping was becoming a murky melange over such a large stitch-count. You know when you’ve made something really clever in plasticine and then the mean-kid comes and mushes all the colours together so that it looks like muck? That was what my hat was like.

It was an easy decision to rip and start again. Same wool, I decided – after all “multi-coloured” was part of the Brief. My pattern choice should instead let the striping of the yarn play with a shorter stitch-count giving deeper stripes. I went for a classic: the “traditional” fluted tea-cosy pattern. My sister knit one of these when we were in Primary School but I never got the chance. You may be surprised to learn that I didn’t automatically know how it was made – I had to look it up.

Some judicious searching on Ravelry… a bit more maths to convert the gauge to my bulkier yarn… and I was off again. Only now I’m not so sure of myself. Once bitten – twice shy, as they say; so now I’m less gung-ho about this project. I need your opinion to help me decide:

1. Am I making something with bo-ho chic / rustic charm / grungy cool
2. or… Just plain FUGLY!

Fancy a cuppa?

Opinions below, if you please…