Thank God they only got into some acrylic. The rest of my stash has been carefully gone over and it looks like just a few skeins that were in a box on the floor had our little friends in them. Still threw those away lest the rest of the lot get contaminated.
This is my fault for not thinking of the fact that we’d had the damned things in the past…like several years ago past. Assumed they were gone. Forgot them entirely. Sigh.
Making a pair of house socks for my daughter with obnoxiously bright acrylic. They’re coming out great, though the color sequence left the heel black and seeing that is difficult as hell seeing as how I’m fifty and all lol. So I’ve got to pick a nice sunny day and get that heel turned!
I’ve been thinking about this and since it’s the first truly brutal day of the year it’s now at the top of my mind. I have a few things in line behind it, but my first project is the Workday Scarf from Sue Flanders in Phydlbitz Sock from Knitivity:
I’m no photographer so you can’t see the shades of purple woven though this one but it’s absolutely gorgeous.
I’d share the rest but they’ll probably change three times before this is a quarter done lol. I want to get a good start on something so I stand a chance of finishing it.
There’s a lightweight wrap I’ve been looking at, and maybe some house socks, and a tomato-colored skein of light fingering that hasn’t found a home. Decisions, decisions.
I went on something of a marathon knitting session to get this done. I was tired of looking at it in my knitting basket and also I’m on a finishing binge (except for the hexies. They’re hibernating lol). I’ve got everything that’s knitting off the needles, so I can start something new. The goal is one knit project, one crochet project. Hexies aside, I’ve got a fair amount of other crochet I need to clear up before I start something else. This is subject, of course, to the condition that it’s summer and I have no air conditioning. Lightweight is going to be the name of the game. I’ll decide after I inventory.
One of the things I ran up against finishing the scarf was a sanity check on the bind-off. I just wanted to give a shout out toward this article that made me feel less crazy:
See that garter stitch that snuck in there? I read from the beginning of the pattern instead of where I left off, and didn’t even question myself. This is my longest running wip, started October 28, 2012! 12! Dear lord. It’s coming along nicely now though and should be finished in a week or two depending on what I focus on.
I’ve noticed something peculiar over the last few months: the more wips I have the more I work on them. This leaves me with projects that each take longer but overall I’m making much more progress. so now I’m embracing my desire to start one more thing and I’m much happier. I love bring able to pick up whatever I’m in the mood for and just go.
I’ve got a few things on the needles/hook right now and I’m struggling a bit with not wanting to work on one of them. It’s funny, there are things that you just don’t know about a project until you’re well into it. There’s no substitute for experience I suppose.
So I went like gangbusters through the first foot or so of Grain. I somehow managed to make mistakes even in garter stitch, even with yarn overs for increases. This should have been excellent TV knitting and yet I was managing to make a mess. That bit eventually smoothed out, but then I learned something truly problematic:
Each row getting longer drives me insane. This is not a good thing if you want to knit shawls. And I don’t know why I want to knit a shawl. I have no use for one. My daughter says she loves them but doesn’t ever wear them. I certainly won’t. I don’t know any shawl-people.
So what do I do with this growing beast? Do you frog just because a project isn’t speaking to you anymore? Do you hide it in the closet? Do you power through?
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. 🙂
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.
