pool party

So I've made a bit of progress with my unstripy Tempest now - I'm halfway up the back, and it is going quite quickly. It's 4ply weight yarn but on 4mm needles, so quite a flimsy lightweight thing - ideal for the british summer (when worn over 17 underjumpers).

But when I got to the top of the waist shaping, something rather odd happened... pooling! OH NOES!!1 I was totally caught off guard here. For some reason, the possibility of pooling just hadn't occurred to me at all, even though I've encountered it before as a phenomenon, and this yarn is hand-dyed. I really can be quite remarkably thick sometimes. I think because the colours are quite similar-ish and quite short repeats, the pooling warning neurone in my brain just failed to fire.

And then an even weirder thing happened... I decided I didn't actually mind. I mean, everyone knows pooling is the enemy. And I generally agree, especially when combined with clown-barf-esque swirly garishness. But here, with the lovely warm hues of Woolmisery in my hands? I actually quite like the little almost-stripes of colour. What's happened to me? Either I've lost all my taste and good sense or I am high on Strickheroin. Or possibly both.

I am, however, slightly apprehensive about what the front parts / sleeves will turn out like. Am considering counting the stitches across in the pooled area, dividing by the number of stripes, and looking for other parts of the pattern where the stitch count is an exact multiple of the Pooling Factor. Is that a bit nerdy?