Friday, September 13, 2013

Victory is mine. Sorta.

I made it, just barely! I had 2 grams and change remaining. I ended up doing 7 repeats of the wing chart on the right side (1 less than the recommended 8 in the pattern) and 6 repeats on the left side. If I had had just one more gram of yarn, I could've done the whole thing. I averaged roughly 3 grams per repeat.

But, alas, I was just a bit short for that. Part of that is likely owing to the number of knots I had in this skein. I actually ended up just knitting one into the project because I was afraid I didn't have enough spare yardage to untie it and do a Russian join. Oh well. It's gorgeous - or at least it will be, when it's been blocked, and I don't think the asymmetry will be too noticeable.

I'm getting that antsy, Christmas is on it's way, I must knit everything feeling lately. My best friend just got engaged, and something possessed me to decide to knit her new soon-to-be-hubby an accessory set, so I stocked up on some Shepherd's Wool. I asked her what colors he liked (not realizing that she would go ask him, thus ruining the surprise) and it was a typical male answer - dark grey, dark brown, maybe some dark red for interest. Sigh...so shall it be.

I also decided to make them a blanket for a wedding present. Because I am insane. So I got some Lana Grande and started the blanket. Here's what it looks like.

Yeah. I always ask CodeNinja to count stitches for me, and usually ask him to check (or often just do) my math for me. I wanted to do a few extra repeats so I asked him the math question, as I usually do, and he told me how many stitches I was short, I cast on a few more, and off I went, knitting the first 6 rows of seed stitch. Then, I did the first pattern row and - I was off. Grossly off. Four stitches short. I was both flabbergasted and totally furious with myself, because that little voice in my head kept telling me maybe I should count my stitches again and just be sure, and a couple of times I started counting as I knit across the row, but I would inevitably lose count before I got to the end. So, a whole evening's knitting, frogged back into a squishy ball of super bulky yarn. Boo.

I'm almost done with the first Saxifrage socks. I was hoping I would be able to end at a nice place in the pattern, but I measured and it became obvious that I had missed my opportunity to switch to stockinette at a nice place. I ended up fiddling with the pattern a little bit to make the transition work to my liking, but now all I have left on this one is the toe. Then...I have to knit the second one, of course.

In real life it is nowhere near as neon as it looks in this picture.

I will be working on my Desert Peach as my lace project now. I can cast on the scarf/hat set for my BFF's fiancé and that can be my mindless travel project, and the Umaro I can only work on for relatively small chunks of time anyway, as the big needles hurt my hands. I haven't gone too overboard yet, right? It'll be fine. Just fiiiiine.

 

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