Feeling better now

The swatch still lied, but not as badly as I thought. It did shrink about 10% in length, from 30" inches to somewhere between 27-28". It shrank 1 inch in width. The final is 27 or 28" long (depending on where I measure) by 18.5" wide. The hat, on the other hand, shrank hardly at all - a quarter of an inch in width and not at all in length.

Odessa proceeds apace.



Isn't it pretty?

I'm at 4.5" inches - 1 inch to go before the decreases begin.

Swatches LIE.

I have not measured, so I cannot be totally sure yet, but after washing and drying the baby items AGAIN yesterday...I don't think that Georgina's dryer has anti-shrink technology. -_- Also, these items take freaking forever to dry, which I should have anticipated (cotton) but didn't (dumbass). As I stood there staring at the unshrunk blanket, I found myself thinking, "I did dry it on delicate. Maybe delicate doesn't get as hot. Maybe if I wet it again and dry it on regular..."

But I can't keep doing this. I will wear it out before I even give it away. I have to accept it. It isn't going to shrink.

...

It's fine. It's just a little bigger than it should be, but it's a blanket so it's not the end of the world. Seriously. IT'S FINE.

I am totally lying. I HATE it when things don't turn out as I anticipate. It doesn't matter whether it has any effect on the ultimate usefulness of the item. THAT IS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE.

Now, in most areas of my life, I manage to accept the huge gap between "The way things Should Be" and "The way things Are." Failure to accept that gap leads to chronic unhappiness, a bad attitude, and a poor approach to life in general.

So, why can I not accept that when it comes to crafts? I know it's fine the way that it is but it isn't how it Should Be and so I get mad, occasionally leaving Sbodd to ask me why I continue with these hobbies. This usually results in me screaming at him, "BECAUSE I ENJOY IT NOW LEAVE ME ALONE."

Not a healthy attitude.

I, CraftNinja, do hereby swear and affirm, that I am not going to go into a closet and have a serious shit fit over the lack of shrinkage in this baby blanket, even though the label says it will shrink 10-15% and the stupid swatch shrank exactly the way it was supposed to - but I do hereby admit that it might be my fault, for not knitting and washing a second swatch in the pattern stitch, because that is the only freaking explanation I have for why this thing did not shrink like it was SUPPOSED TO.

Instead I will measure it calmly tonight, add the details of the post washing measurements to my Raverly entry for the benefit of anyone else who might wish to knit this project in Pakucho Organic Cotton. Then I will snip the ends, fold it up nicely in tissue paper, and put it aside until that unnamed day sometime in the future when the baby shower occurs. I will not be bitter about all the extra knitting I did in anticipation of shrinkage. I will instead remember that I like knitting and so extra knitting should not be seen as a sign that the universe hates me.

I will report back later on how this approach goes.

In other, more cheerful news, Odessa is proceeding at a pace that absolutely astonishes me. I have three full inches done out of the 5.5 that I have to do before beginning my decreases. I have only 2 quibbles:

1) Beads are heavy. I did not fully take this into account and the fifty bajillion beads I strung on the yarn (because I had no intention of counting out 150 tiny seed beeds so I just strung the whole package) are tugging significantly on my working yarn and it DRIVES ME CRAZY.
2) The beads do not slide as easily on the yarn as I expected they would, so moving the beads down the yarn makes me a little bit of the crazy.

But, again, it's going really fast - imagine how fast it would go if I had opted not to mess with the beads! I am starting to think I have a few million more on there than I actually need. Next time I will take the time and count out the 150. Lesson learned! I surrender!

But it is a darn cute hat.

The baby blanket is finished!!

Woo hoo! No picture, because it pretty much looks exactly the same as the last picture, only longer. I haven't even woven in the ends yet. This is partly because a) I hate that part b) I am waiting to wash all this stuff until I finish the bunny blanket buddy.

The bunny blanket buddy pattern is written for superbulky yarn, which this is most definately not. Right now it is 40 stitches wide and I am supposed to start knitting the paws here, but I am not doing that. I'm going to double the size because if I did it this way it would be teeny even unwashed, and since there is again that whole shrinks-when-washed factor, it would be a choking hazard.

Of course, I also know that it will shrink more in length than it will in width, so this whole enterprise may be terribly ill-advised, but I am forging ahead anyway. Why not - all I have to lose is time and sanity.

Odessa remains on standby until the bunny is finished. It went pretty quickly last night so hopefully Odessa will not be stuck on standby much longer.

I have a bunch of skeins of burgandy Knit Picks Gloss at home and I am thinking about using them to knit Jeanie. I didn't care for that pattern when it was published but I have since seen another one on someone's blog in a different colorway and I LOVE it. I originally bought those skeins of Gloos planning to make one of the shawls from Wrapped in Comfort, but...I really did like that Jeanie.

The only thing is, I'm afraid the burgandy may be too dark for it. What I loved about the one I saw was the translucense and airyness and I'm just not sure such a strong color is the right selection.

There is really no purpose to this idle speculation...there are about 8 million things I really really want to knit and I am constantly changing my mind about which I will get to next. I want to knit something for myself, and I want to knit something that is not going to bore me to tears, so I am still pretty steady on Shaharazad as my next pattern. I am hoping that since it changes I will not be trying to stab myself after 8 million identical repeats, just for a change. Best of all, I already have yarn for it! I...hope. I am as always utterly paranoid about running out, but anyway - 2 skeins of Suri Blue should be enough. Really. I hope.