This week has been all about Jewelled Star. I got obsessed with it and went from this:
Not too far to go until I start the star motifs. I’m so excited to see how this turns out!
And…that is absolutely all I’ve worked on this week. Sometimes it’s good to just work and work and work on something. And it’s always good to go where the work leads you.
I’ve put my foot down and started spending the time I need to spend to be reasonably satisfied in my crafty endeavors. I feel a little guilty putting the dishes off until I’ve finished another square (or doing them in the morning!), but that square is important. It is an expression of skill and craft that is worthy of your time and care.
Like many people, I’m pretty bad about making time for myself. There are kids and chores and social obligations filling the day. I’ve learned, though, that taking a bit of that precious time to work on a project brings such rich rewards that it’s worth it. It brings me peace, it helps center me to meet other challenges, it brings on a sense of accomplishment, and it’s just plain beautiful, both during the process and in the finished project.
I’ve started to guard my crafting time, even if all I can carve out is a round of ribbing on a sock or a pattern repeat on a scarf. It’s these little things that add to the day far more than they steal in mere minutes. Time is precious, and so are the things that bring you joy. Keep them close.
I’ve been switching back and forth between knit and crochet recently and it seems to be doing funny things to my tension. I really noticed it when I finally went back to Jewelled Star—I had to drop down a hook size to get the same gauge because my crocheting had become so much looser. It’s a problem I’ve never had before but it was remedied easily enough. I’m thankful that that is all it took to fix the problem; it would have been a pain to start over.
I’m seeing it in my knitting, too. I made this pair of ugly worsted weight acrylic socks just to prove that I could indeed still make a sock (thank you Silver’s Sock Classes!) The bumps and distortions from changes in tension didn’t even wash out. I think I was so stressed about keeping everything on the needles that I was knitting way too tight (the challenge of the gusset decreases proves this out) and every time I started to loosen up I’d tighten up again. This left some unattractive ridges, but I got a lesson and two socks out of the deal, so it wasn’t so bad.
The other factor I’ve noticed is just life. A bad day will leave me gripping my yarn for dear life, until I remember that even the toughest project should be one that brings me some form of happiness. I’m going to resist the urge to turn this into a big ol’ metaphor, but you can easily see how life outside of the fiber arts and life within them can sometimes do a delicate dance and how tension affects tension.
May all your projects be tensioned just as you want them, and all your crafting be calm. 🙂
Wherein I try and fail to make progress:
1. Grain: I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with the simplicity of this knit. It’s great TV knitting and I’ve gotten faster and smoother at cranking out knit stitch as a result of working on it, but there’s just so very far to go and I’m just so very bored. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this one.
2. Al’s Mitts: I’ve been having trouble getting these fingerless gloves done since I first started them. I’m not quite finished with one and making the second one seems daunting even though I think I’ve figured it out now. These are simple moss stitch crochet worked so the stretchiness encircles the and and wrist. They’re worked as a rectangle and will be seamed up the side. I don’t know why I’ve had trouble with them, but it’s like that sometimes I suppose.
3.Jewelled Star: Talk about love-hate relationships! From trying to get a reasonable assortment of colors to how much I don’t like making one of the motifs it’s fought me back the whole way. This one I plan to win, though. I’ve just got too much invested and too much love for the finished project. Not to mention that the process of deciding what colors to put together is an absolute joy.
There are a couple more but those are the big ones. They’re all driving me nuts in one way or another and probably need to be put in time out lol. Or maybe I need a smaller project or two that can be finished quickly to get my mojo back. We’ll see. But for now I’m chugging along and making some progress and is something that I’m really happy with.
Just now made another mistake on Grain. I dropped a yo instead of knitting it I think? In any case, everything’s secure, just odd looking in a spot. Won’t even notice in the fo.
Got some stitch markers from ChiaoGoo that are making things much easier where I’m using them. Proper tool for the proper job. You wouldn’t think a stitch marker would make much of a difference but it really eliminates a friction point.
I got my latest purchase from Knitivity today. It’s gorgeous as always. Pictures to come.
I got some Scarfie this week as well and thought I’d picked a pattern for it but changed my mind when I actually started working it up. So that can be stash for a bit while I work on other things.
I’ve been doing a lot of gaming this week. I think my hands appreciate being asked to do something else.
And there’s even more going on but that seems like a good list!
So having returned to knitting with issues in my left hand I’m finding it super awkward to purl continental. I figured I could try knitting English and see if it was any smoother. The jury’s still out at this point, but it’s a possibility.
I did some random swatching to see if I could at least improve my purls when working them continental and that met with some success.
The biggest reason behind this is ribbing (which I haven’t practiced yet). I’m about to attempt socks again and I’m worried about getting them off to a good start (yes, I’ve settled on going cuff-down again). Tomorrow when I’m fresh I’m going to 2×2 my little heart out, assuming I can pull myself away from the day for a little while. It’s going to be a busy one.
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