Craftiness
On the plus side…
Even though I ended up completely restarting my crazy intricate knitting project (despite the fact that I was about 20% done with it), it’s probably going to be a good thing, in the end. This time around, my stitches seem more defined, and the structure more set. So, I’m going to declare this to be a win, overall.
Attention fiber (of the stringy variety) friends.
My ball winder and I are having something of a hate / hate relationship these days. I suspect that it’s actually the fault of my rather rickety, cheap, and old swift, but I can’t be sure. I’m pondering the necessity of replacing one or both items, and would like some input from the fiberati as to what their favorites are. So, speak up. Favorite yarn swift? Favorite ball winder? Other necessary accessories of the sort?
A run of good days.
Let’s see. On the ‘good day’ front, I last updated on Thursday. I have had an unbroken streak of good days since then.
Knitting math.
One of the projects I’m doing is fairly small, in terms of “actual finished product.” However, it is knit on US 2 needles, which are pretty tiny, so it’s a very fine fabric that’s being produced. It’s also a very intricate pattern, which means a lot of switching back and forth between staring at the yarn and staring at the pattern. But, thus far, it’s been zipping along pretty quickly. I’ve gotten about a third of the way through the physical project in about 3 days of knitting. This lulled me into a sense of complacency, thinking that I’d be able to tear through the rest of the project equally quickly.
Little did I know that the “intricate” work that I’d been working on thus far was really easy, and the intricacy had not yet begun. I noticed that there seemed to be a decent number of cables in the part I was working, and looking ahead to the pattern, there were many more. In a fit of madness, I thought I’d count up just how many more.
470. 470 cables total in the project. Of which I have done about 30.
Oh boy.
Too many projects!
I’m not quite sure how it happened. Sure, I usually have a couple of projects going at any given time, but right now, I’m completely awash in projects. They range in intricacy from “completely mind-numbingly boring” to “gods help the person who talks to me while I’m working on this.” It’s kind of nice to have a variety of things to work on, but a couple are on deadline, so there’s that added looming sensation.
What I’m working on:
- A gigantic rectangle of stockinette for a LYS sample project (I swear, it’s almost done!)
- Shamala’s socks, which needs Shamala’s foot in order to continue. I have yet to convince her to mail me a foot.
- A pretty pretty shawl. No intended recipient yet.
- A super secret scarf project.
- A super secret toddler project.
- Tech knitting a shawl for a local designer.
These are just the active projects. I have another dozen or so sitting in hibernation. And we’re not going to talk about the blocking (much of which also has deadlines). Oy.
Yesterday was a decent day.
Yesterday included:
- geeking and knitting in the morning
- plotting a couple of knitting projects with G’s mom
- shopping (successfully!) for yarn for said projects with G’s mom
- napping with a Border Collie
- snuggling with G and the cats
A pretty good day, really.
It just figures…
I have decided that I really hate making lace-weight i-Cord.
It’s a shame that this project I really really want to work on requires about 96″ inches of it, total.
Having a knitting stupid day.
I’m attempting to knit a pattern (more on the whole block-atorium in a second), and I am completely unable to wrap my head around a key transition in the pattern. I admit that I’m test-knitting an as-yet-unpublished pattern, but I’m confident that the designer is quite talented, and she’s tried to help me through the transition in three different ways. It seems that I’m just not meant to knit this pattern.
In the past, there have been patterns that I’ve consistently screwed up on while trying to work it, but this is the first one I’ve encountered that I just couldn’t manage to knit at all, and it’s bumming me out.
About that whole, “I’m not supposed to be knitting because I’m supposed to be blocking” thing, well. Blocking requires standing and kneeling, neither of which have really been possible for the last couple of days, thanks to my latest malady: my knees are doing their best to not work. I never really realized how much one uses one’s knees, until every movement started to hurt.
This is not a resolution. It’s merely a really good idea.
I should make this be a firm statement, but I’m not that brave. So instead, I’ll put this out there, just so everyone knows what I should be doing next week.
Starting Monday morning, I would like to entertain the idea that there will be no knitting until there is blocking. It almost hurts just to say that. But, it needs to be done. I have at least three scarves, a shawl, and a toddler’s sweater that are all complete sans blocking. If I do it right, I can try to block something every day, and be done by the end of the week.
[ Amendment: If I block something and am waiting for it to dry, I am allowed to knit until such time that the item is deemed dry. ]
*deep breaths* I can do this.