Sweet Pea's Fiber Frolic & Other Stuff

Utter Disgust

There will be no photos today because I don't have much to show for my recent knitting efforts.  Equal time has been spent knitting and un-knitting.  I goofed on the jaywalker socks causing a misalignment of the "point" in the pattern and did not notice it till about 7 or 8 rows later.  Duh.  These socks are intended for me so I will just leave it be, especially since it is on the instep and will never be seen while the socks are in shoes.  Pisses me off just the same, and makes me not want to knit on them anymore.  Blech.

Then there is the little issue of seaming together little Baby Gundy.  But before we get to the seaming we have to get through the picking up of the neck stitches.  I actually like picking up and knitting stitches - and generally feel confident doing so now that I have knit a number of socks.  Not this time!  The stitches are picked up and the neck edging all knit and it is decidedly underwhelming.  Looks OK but not great.  I am hoping a little blocking will straighten things out.

Because I really hate suck at um, am not too fond of seaming, I thought I would be all smart and 3-needle bind off the shoulder seams.  So I did and it looked like, well, like I did 3 needle bind off where there should have been an invisible seam.  Rip.  Graft instead.  OK - but it is a little droopy so I reinforced the shoulder area from the inside.  Sew in sleeve the way Mom showed me.  Rip.  Sew in sleeve according to directions in book and the seam is the nicest I have ever done, only the sleeve is not centered.  Rip.  Step away from the sweater.

Pick up lovely brown shawl and compare results to pattern.  Looking good, but detailed review reminds me that I have selected a slightly thicker yarn and larger needle (thus larger shawl) than pattern requirements.  Decide that I should start the next chart (thus reducing shawl size) to compensate.  Current chart increases 12 stitches each repeat and next chart has a 12-stitch repeat so everything should be A-OK.  Except that the current chart increases those 12 stitches over the entire row and the subsequent chart has the 12-stitch repeat on each side of the center stitch.  No amount of math or foul language solves this problem.  I must knit the remaining 3 repeats for this to work.  This thing may be the size of a small bedspread by the time I am through.  Luckily I have plenty of yarn.

I would step away from the knitting all together and do some spinning but I have no interesting fiber that I feel like dealing with.  Maybe I will card up the rest of the black alpaca that has been hanging around for a while.  Maybe not.

Progress!

I am not a fast knitter.  Not terribly slow, but really not fast.  With that said, I have a very successful (for me) few days of knitting progress to report.  That would be an unchanged brown blob of lace shawl in the center.  Disregard that as there has been no progress there.  What is exciting is the wee Baby Gundy sweater with a complete left and right front and two complete sleeves, just waiting to be cast off.  Baby Cashmerino knits up beautifully.  Now onward to the back and seaming it up.  The seaming will be the big challenge here.

That is also a growing sock over on the right.  This photo does not show the pattern well, but the Jaywalkers are fun to knit.  Despite using size 1 1/2 needles, these babies are going to be a bit snug.  I am not one to rip back this much sock, so if they do not end up fitting me, they will be a gift to someone with smaller feet.

I also received the nicest note from H & Annie about their (unphotographed) Christmas mittens.  Best of all, it included a photo of the mits in action which I will add to my completed work gallery.  The picture does not show the pattern well, but at least I have some proof that I finished this project.

I briefly considered the Knitting Olympics yesterday.  It would be a great opportunity to knit my felted blag from the Navajo yarn I bought in Arizona while on vacation last summer.  The challenge there would have been in the designing.  What is really calling me right now is that skein of Anne, purchased during a naughty moment at a LYS last week. 

I am desperate to knit it up into some springtimey lace thing.  I have a ONE LACE PROJECT AT A TIME rule, so that would mean abandoning the brown Shaped Triangle Shawl from A Gathering of Lace.  I really like both the brown yarn and the lace pattern, but it is mind-numbingly dull right now.  A four-row pattern repeat of a six-stitch pattern that is just causing my eyes to glaze over....That, plus the fact that by the time I get that baby done it will not be "brown" weather, it will be time to wear colors like these:   

So what to do?  Maybe if I wind the yarn into a ball it will speak to me and tell me what it really wants to be.  However that turns out, I have decided to let the whole Olympic knitting thing be taken up by better, faster knitters than I.