Monday, October 22, 2007

Make it stop!!!

I really thought I was going to finish the Urban Necessity gloves this weekend...but I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I finished the second glove and started the mitten cap...and then restarted...and then started the decreases and realized it was too short, pulled that chunk out, knitted it again, discovered it was still too short and reknitted it AGAIN, and the whole time I was trying to make sense of the directions for the decreases and failing (I am reasonably sure that I am just stupid and it is not the fault of the pattern. Finally I just followed the first set of decrease instructions until the decreases had nearly met at the top, and then I knit two together around, and then I grafted the top as if it were the toe of a sock. It looks okay I think. I hope.

Having made every mistake I could possibly make on the first one, the second one is going much faster, so I hope that, God willing, I will finish the things tonight, photograph them, and then pack them off in a box to the recipient and never have to look at them again.

The good news is that the second glove went really, really quickly, which means that the pair of fingerless gloves that I promised to make for a friend at my D&D group should go very quickly as well. This is good, since I would really, really like to work on some stuff for me. I'm dying to start a Wrapped in Comfort shawl (I keep changing my mind on which one) and the Merino Style I ordered to swatch for Eris showed up, so I'd like to get my fingers in that, and a million other things that I would like to do. But I am determined to get all the stuff I promised other people out of the way first because I feel guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

So! Order of operations:

1) fingerless gloves
2) Imperial Armwarmers
3) Dimple Shale Scarf
4) Pedicure socks

My life is complicated somewhat because I have one friend who asks for everything she sees me make and has actually offered my knitting to others.

Friend 1: "I like that sock."
Friend 2: "You want a sock like that? She'll make you a sock like that!"
Me: "Umm..."

I have now learned the lesson that I think all knitters learn eventually...from now on my answer will be "No, but I will teach you how to do it yourself."

Said Friend 2 actually does know how to knit garter stitch and just needs some direction, I think. I bought her copies of Stitch n' Bitch and Knitting Rules and am just waiting for the opportunity to deliver them.