Multiple Craftonalities

Pause

I finished another not-quite wearable sweater 2 weeks ago.  It is a cardigan/wrap type cardigan.  I love the pattern which is from SweaterBabe.com #112 Dramatic Lace Wrap (Top-Down) Cardigan but, once again, I ended up with something that is not happy to wear.

It is too big.  I think my gauge was right on, but I suffer from this syndrome that causes me to choose a size up from what I really need.  In this situation it created a back and back neckline that is just too wide and the sweater constantly slips back on my shoulders.  I even tried cinching it tightly with a lovely new, hand-carved, cherry shawl pin, but it still fits uncomfortably.

I am bummed.  I suppose I could just give it to someone larger than myself, but I really like, no love, the sweater.  I have just enough yarn to almost make another one in the next size down, but the sleeves will be really short.  Really.

If one more person says, "Well, couldn't you just shrink it a little?", I think I will break down entirely.

So I am pausing, trying to decide what my next move will be.  I want to knit a sweater that I can wear and love.  Over the past 10 years I have learned that is not as easy as it sounds.  At least not for me.

2011 still hand-knit-sweaterless in Wisconsin.  Brrrr...

Bad Knitting Voodoo

 
I stayed up a bit late to finish my Hot Flash socks last night.  I was feeling pretty fine and pleased with myself for finishing the toe and then weaving the ends in right away.  I was giving myself a mental pat on the back and thinking about how I have really grown as a knitter now that I was completing old, unfinished projects and even doing the finishing work immediately upon completing the knitting.

Fueled by all of my kind thoughts about myself, I decided to snap a few photos so I could post right away about my awesome accomplishment.  I took about a thousand crummy photos of my Hot Flash-stocking feet (my photos never do justice for my knitted items so I play the odds by taking many, many photos and hoping I get lucky and get one decent one)(which I rarely do).  It was taking quite a while because I was setting the timer on my camera for each shot so I could get a picture of my feet at a less awkward angle then I usually manage. 

While all this was going on, it did dawn on me that anyone looking in at this crazy lady in her nightgown, setting the timer on her camera, and then pulling up her nightgown and posing her feet in front of the camera would think something really, really weird was going on.  I guess it is really, really weird, but what’s a knitter to do?

At some point during this amateur photo shoot I started to notice that the knitted pattern in the socks didn’t seem to quite match up.  I had noticed this when the second sock first came off the needles, but I attributed it to it not having been tried on and “stretched out” yet.  I started to really concentrate on the tops of my feet and tried to figure out what exactly was different.

It slowly dawned on me that I knit approximately 10 more rows of stocking knit before the toe decreases on the first sock than I did on the second sock and it was, of course, about and inch longer than the second sock that I knit.  Incidentally, the second sock was a better fit.  Ugh.

 
The “funny” part of the story is that I was knitting on the sock at work (on my breaks and lunch) yesterday, and stopped when I got to the toe decrease section because…  because I wanted to check the second sock against the first sock to see if I had added any length to it.  When I was home last night, I did check it against the first sock to see if there were any added rows.  I didn’t see them.  It appeared that I had started the toe decreases at the same spot on the first sock that I was sitting at on the second sock.

(Insert large sigh here)  I don’t know how to explain it.  It must be some kind of bad knitting voodoo, but there it is.  I have successfully completed two different sized socks.  I’ve had little to no success with sweater knitting, but sock knitting I could depend on to make me feel like I was a proficient (if not exactly an accomplished) knitter, and now this mini-tragedy.

I am going to see if I can find my woven-in toe end on the first sock, and if I can find it and pick it out, I will rip the first sock back and tear out the extra 10 rows.  Then I will re-knit the toe.  I just don’t think I can live with or wear a pair of socks that are two different sizes.

I need to start making notes on patterns.  It is such simple advice, and I have read it time and time again, but it took this little incident to make it sink in.  I always think, "Oh, I'll remember what I did here", but I rarely do.  I really hope I can find the yarn end in that wildly variegated yarn.  I'm pretty paranoid that ends will pop out so I weave in a lot of end yarn.  I realize I could just snip the yarn at the toe, but I really would prefer not to go that route.  My hands are starting to sweat just thinking about it.

Hot Flash Socks

 

For the past few days, I have been working furiously away on the second sock of a pair that I started a very long time ago.  The pattern is Cat Bordhi's "Ocean Toes" and the yarn is Socks that Rock mediumweight in "Hot Flash".  This was the second time I have knit this pattern and I still really love it.  This pattern is what I bought the book for.

I left the half-finished second sock languish on the needles for a long time thinking that I would not be able to pick up where I left off, and not wanting to have to work that hard to find my spot in the pattern again.

I surprised myself when I picked up the sock in progress and had no trouble finding where I left off, and I started using the charts to work the sock.  It turns out that I really enjoy going by the chart instead of the written directions.  The book thoughtfully offers both charts and written directions, and now I wish I had used the charts all along.  I am cruising right up to the finish line with these now.

I am still really pleased with the design.  The shaping is so thoughtful and complete.  It is not just a pattern for a tube with an elbow in it.  It really follows the contours of a human foot. (Most human feet anyway)

It has been gray and dreary out lately, not to mention cold, so I think these hot colors and zig zags are just what I need to put a smile on my face tomorrow morning.  Well, maybe the morning after tomorrow.  We'll have to see if I really can get them finished tonight or not.

I have the first of my dark greenish alpaca socks just about done too.  It has been sitting there with just a few toe rows left to go, and I cannot actually explain to myself what is stopping me from working on those.  It is strange how sometimes a knitting project actually seems to repel one's attention for no apparent reason at all.

Maybe the attraction will come back when my loud and hot-flashing socks are finally done.  I'm not feeling too confident on that score though.  I was cruising the stash last night, reaquainting myself with some of my other not-yet-wound lovlies, and I was having a definite urge to hit the local yarn store today.  I did resist the shoppy feeling today, but I don't know how long I will be able to keep it up.

If I can just finish these Ocean Toes and find something "good" in my yarn cabinet, I may be able to hold out until the feeling passes.  It is something to think about in any case.

Denial, Hindsight, and Really?

 

Last year, fall-ish time, I started this sweater using a pattern called Marisa.  I purchased the pattern at Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, IL and was excited to knit a sweater that was constructed from only two pieces, required minimal finishing, and was relatively inexpensive because it was knit in sock-weight yarn.

It's hazy, but I seem to recall having a few mis-starts.  The size XL of the pattern calls for 220 cast-on stitches and I knit for a while, increasing four stitches every other row or something like that.  The gist of the story being that every other row or so the row gets l o n g e r.

Anyway, the Artyarns Ultramerino 4 was full of knots.  I mean every skein had at least two, but one in particular had five.  No lie.  I had never run across something like this before.  For some reason I could not divine (then or even now), I just thought -why heck, I'll just knit all those knots right in!  Darn skippy!

After a few inches (hundreds upon hundreds of stitches), I thought- huh, I could spit-splice all those knots instead of knitting them right in.  I ripped it all out and started over, spit-splicing all those knots and wondering why I didn't think of that first.

I knit, and I knit, and I knit some more.  I knit through quite a few skeins of sock yarn.  I thought I should have enough yarn.  I loved the blue & lime colorway so much that I bought something like 10 skeins of it from my local yarn shop, knot knowing at the time what I would do with it and certainly knot knowing that this beautiful yarn was going to drive me insane with all the knots in every single blessed skein.

I had that sense, that feeling, and that little voice saying maybe, just maybe this was getting a little on the big side.  But then I just thought back saying- but it's supposed to be a loose tunic style, so it's all good.  I kept kniting, and knitting until I finished the body.  I never really shook that really big feeling.

I must have mentioned this to my husband, and he loves a good internet search.  He searched around on-line for me and found some pages talking about the pattern and how it had come out way too big for the intended wearers.  I heard him, but I kept knitting.  I don't know why really.  I guess it's just that special kind of stubborn.

I knit until I was nearly finished.  Both sleeves were at a mid-way kind of point because I wasn't sure how far to go with them due to the unusual construction of the sweater.  Then, springtime arrived and I stuffed the sweater parts into a knitting bag and shoved it in my bedroom closet when I was cleaning up for a birthday party in March.

Today I was inspired to dig that sweater out from the yarn monster that it was intertwined with and pin it together a little to see if it might be worth finishing.  Sweater weather is here.  I drove to the store, and bought a bottle of one of my favorite wines to brace myself.  I poured a glassful and confronted that sweater.

 

I don't even know what to say.  I don't know if it would be possible to knit a more unflattering sweater for myself.  Mere words cannot describe it.  What was I thinking?  What wasn't I thinking?  Should a clue have been that the sample was knit with 2 skeins of sock yarn, and even though I was not using the same sock yarn, I had easily knit up at least 9 skeins of yarn into this sweater???

 

Why do I keep choosing patterns that are not appropriate for my body type?  Why do I keep knitting a project when deep down I know -yes, I know it's not working out?  Will I ever knit a sweater that I feel is a complete success?

I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do know that I will soon have a giant, 9 skein, spit-spliced ball of yarn to knit it with. 

 

I May Never Knit with Anything Else

 

After enduring another mitten fiasco, I thought I should knit on something safe and reassuring.  I pulled out my swift and winder, and without much ado, I selected a sock yarn from my yarn cabinet and wound it into a ball.  I had worn a pair of Hedera socks today and was reminded of how much I love this pattern from Cookie A.  After a few minutes of searching I had the pattern and a pair of size 1 Addi turbos in hand, and sat down in front of Project Runway to cast on a new pair of socks.  I have a good track record of knitting, finishing, and wearing hand knit socks, so it only took a few minutes for the estranged-from-knitting feeling to leave me and to start feeling the good-friend feeling about knitting again.

The yarn I grabbed from the cabinet is Plymouth Yarn, Alpaca Prima.  Apart from the fuzzies that land around my nose and distract me with their itchiness-  I love it.  It only took a few rows before the voice in my head was saying, "Oh, I need more of this.  I may never knit with anything but 100% Alpaca ever again."

I normally don't like fuzzy fibers floating around my face, but these are socks so once I have them knit they won't be anywhere near my face.

Perfect!  Now I just need more.

 

 

New Socks on the Needles

The last pair of socks I knit with KNIT ONE crochet too TY-DY SOCKS has become my latest and greatest favorite pair.  The color was Magenta Moss (shown in this "in progress" photo):

When I saw this blue/green colorway, I thought it would be really cute with a pair of blue jeans and I had to grab it.

I always have to try a sock in progress on several times.  I spend (not waste) a lot of time stopping to admire my work, but stopping to admire the process is part of the pleasure of knitting.  I thought it was a fun coincidence that my nail polish matches the socks, and pondered the irony of that being hidden once the sock was finished.

I had started knitting this up a long time ago on 2.25 mm needles and using the pattern Hedera from knitty.com, Spring, '06.  I had 3 or 4 inches done, but decided it just was not working for me.  I pulled it all out and decided to go with a plain sock with a fully ribbed cuff.

My ongoing sock dilemma has always been that I love buying varigated colorways, but I want to knit more complex patterned socks, and the varigated yarns don't always look the best on patterned socks.  I have purchased several sock yarns in solid or semi-solid colors, but they are not what I reach for when I want to try something new.  Talk about a rock and a hard-place.

I finished the first sock of the pair:

 

Knitting with the 2.25mm needles made the sock a bit more snug, but this yarn softens up a bit after washing, so I think they will be just right after they are washed.  Some of my earlier socks are a bit loose and sloppy so I keep going down with the needle size.  I think this will do it.

I wanted to cast on the second sock of the pair right away, but had a delayed start because trying to match up the starting point in the color sequence was almost more than I could handle.  I began by pulling from the center of the skein, but quickly realized that I was going to have to waste a lot of yarn to get to the end of the correct light green color section.

I paused and thought about it a while, and realized the color sequence is the same backwards and forwards, so I could just start from the outside of the skein and have to cut out a much smaller section of yarn.  I was feeling so very clever at that point.

The problem was...  The outside of the skein had been "falling off" the skein for a good deal of the time I had been knitting the first sock.  I had to spend a really, really long time trying to untangle and unknot a lot of yarn before I could make sense of where I needed to start casting on.  I was quite frustrated, it was late at night, and this yarn is fine enough that it knots fairly easily. 

I did manage to untangle it all and started the second sock, but only knit about a half of an inch before life got in the way (ok it was really my new found interest in golf that got in the way) and the knitting stalled out.  For now, I can just try on and admire this blue/green sock because I have plenty of time to finish the second one before handknit-sock-weather arrives in the fall.

As always, I am thinking about all of my unfinished knitting projects and wondering if I can work up enough interest in one of them to go back and finish.  I am planning on attending Stitches Midwest later this month and I am certain that there will be new and tempting yarn and patterns coming home with me.

I love Stitches Midwest.  I have a mental list of things I didn't buy last year, but wanted to, so I will be on the lookout for them this year.  I figure the fact that I am still thinking about them signifies that I must have them!

 

That's what I thought at first...

I am just about at the end of this skein of Noro, so that means the scarf is almost complete.  Yaaaayyy!  I really like it, but there is one little thing that is really bugging me though.  Near the beginning of the skein, there was that gold and orange color sequence that had been hiding inside the skein and I didn't really like it.  I thought it would be fine, so I just knit on.

Then I got to the second half of the skein and, lo and behold, there is a knot tied in the yarn right after the brown section.  The brown section was tied to the GRAY section.  Imagine that.  It would almost cause one to think that somebody else didn't quite like the gold and orange section either, and they cut it out, which is great, but why didn't they cut it out both places?

I guess it is a good thing I wasn't knitting a pair of socks with this skein of yarn, because they never would have matched.  I am a little irritated by the situation, but it is what it is I suppose.  There's always got to be some little niggling thing about a project, and the gold and orange sequence is it on this one.  Ugh!

Sometimes yarn can disappoint.  I never used to think that, but I am learning that even premium yarns one buys at a yarn shop can be crap I mean less than perfect.  I'm remembering the Art Yarns merino that was kind of pricey and almost every skein was so full of knots it was just ridiculous. 

Other than that, I am really close to being finished with this.  I'm looking forward to seeing it after it's blocked. It sort of reminds me of a roll of Lifesavers candy.  I realize there are not brown, gray, or blue Lifesavers, but I will still think of this as my Lifesavers scarf.
 

Waiting Room

I spent some time in a clinic waiting room yesterday.  I had my latest scarf project with me and sat working on it while we waited.  I am still really enjoying this project.  I have a bit more than 3 feet of it done now, and at some point along the way I stopped looking at the pattern.

I wouldn't say that I have 8 rows of pattern memorized, but more a combination of memory and being able to see what is going on in the pattern.  It seems really strange to me because when I starting knitting the scarf, I had a difficult time even following the pattern for each row.  I never thought I would be flying along without the pattern after a couple of feet of scarf.

I'm not sure if I should be puffing up and congratulating myself or if it is just a really, really, great pattern.  Maybe it's a little of both, but it gives me a good feeling to think I am becoming a more accomplished knitter.

While I was flying along making progress on Brooke's Column of Leaves Scarf ,a nurse (or medical assistant) kept passing by on her trips to the reception desk, and after a bit stopped to comment on the scarf.  She asked about the yarn and the pattern, and mentioned that she had knit in the past but had not been knitting recently.  Eventually, she asked where I found the pattern, so I told her it was a free pattern I found on-line.  She asked to make a photo copy, and I kind of hesitated because I know that pattern sharing is frowned upon.  But then I thought maybe it is different for free patterns, so I pulled the pattern out of my bag and let the woman photocopy it.  Brooke Nelson's name and web address is on each page, so she is certainly getting credit for this great pattern, and maybe a new visitor to her web site.

I feel good thinking that maybe that nurse (or medical assistant) is now inspired to pick her knitting needles up again, and who knows who else she might inspire to knit.  I'll take all the happy thoughts and images that come my way these days.  I have a lot of not-so-happy things going on in my life right now, so I need to be keeping my eyes open to any little positive things to focus on. 

The beautiful colors, the interesting pattern, and the sense of accomplishment really are helping to take my mind off of my problems and keep my chin up.  I am actually anxious to block this project even though finishing projects has never been my strong suit.  My mind has been wandering to other yarn in my stash that I would live to knit this pattern in.  I'm thinking a triple pattern repeat would make a really beautiful stole.

I love this pattern!

New Lacy Scarf Project

For weeks, I had been wanting to knit something.  I have a new favorite author, Gil McNeil, and I had been reading her latest book, Needles and Purls, which had me itching to knit.  Every day I thought, "I want to knit something".  I just could not figure out what I wanted to knit.

I have the-almost-finished Marissa sweater, the third-of-the-way second Ocean toes sock, a I-don't-know-how-far-along-I-am lacy shawl thing, and -well, you get the picture.  The list goes on and on.  I have projects I could have easily picked up and worked on.  Nothing felt right.  I wanted something relatively simple. 

I came across a lacy scarf pattern, Brooke's Column of Leaves Scarf, that I thought I would try.  It is an 8 row repeat and so far I am really liking it.  I have a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn that is knitting up into fairly wide stripes of color.  I am pretty pleased with it over all.

The only thing bothering me is the burnt orange section.  It was hiding inside the skein.  I don't love it exactly, but I can see it's merits.  I'm going to hang in there and keep working on it for now. 

I started this scarf on June 8th, casting on in the driver's seat while waiting for my husband to fill the gas tank.  I knit a few rows of the pattern that night, and then realized that I completely skipped over the part that said I was to start off with about 8 rows of garter stitch.  I think I was congratulating myself on something I thought I was doing beautifully when I realized I had to rip it out and start over.  Smack!

I'm knitting this lacy scarf on a set of Brittany wood needles that I have not used for a really long time.  Lately, I have knit everything on Addi Turbos.  Socks, sweaters, shawl- everything.  I just saw the needles sitting in the vase and felt like they were the ones to use for some reason.  It's odd because for the past year or so I have kept buying sets of Addi Turbos like they are going to quit making them or something.  Now, when I am digging through my stash and see all of those little plastic zipper bags with new sets of Addi Turbo needles, I keep asking myself, "What did I buy those for?"  For a while I thought I would never knit on anything by Addis again, and then one day, here I am picking up the old Brittanys again.  

It's funny how tastes change.  I can be totally obsessed with something for months and then for no reason at all it just goes away.   As it turns out, the Noro yarn is super sticky and I really have to work to move the stitches off the needles sometimes.  I'm going to keep doing what I am doing though.  It's t not bad enough to switch at this point, and I think it is more the yarn than the needles anyway.

I feel badly, because I have been teaching a friend to knit socks and we both bought a skein of the Noro Silk Garden sock yarn.  It really was not the best choice to teach someone sock knitting with.  It is as difficult to knit with as it is beautiful.  She is determined to stick with it, and has already finished the first sock.  After helping her along the way, I have decided the yarn would knit into a better scarf than a pair of socks.  I guess that makes me a chicken and her a trooper.  You go girl!

I deserve my own Noro scarf anyway.  I knit one in Feather and Fan pattern a few years ago and gave it away to my little sister.  I miss it.  It was really beautiful, and now I will have one of my own.  All's well that ends well, no?

Dream On

Last night I had a dream that I had knit a pair of gloves. They were completely finished, but when I tried them on one of them fit well and the other was too small. It was too short through the palm. The ends were already woven in, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to rip it out and fix it or not.

In another part of the dream, I was workng on my scarf and running out of yarn before the scarf was anywhere near long enough. I was at the end but when I looked down, I still had the skein of yarn there. It just wasn't attached.

Seriously, if I am going to dream about my knitting, why not dream that it is fabulous and perfect? I will never understand why the sleeping mind wants to come up with stressful scenarios instead of calming, happy ones.

Maybe if everything in our dreams was too perfect, we would never want to wake up and life would cease to go on.