Disaster

My Christmas knitting deadline is tomorrow and I was determined to have the orchid mitts at least finished. They're small, they're relatively quick, that's totally doable, right?

No. Last night I got to the point where I was supposed to put the thumb stitches on the holder, only I had gone two rounds too far. Tonight, I picked back the two rounds and put the stitches on the holder, increased as directed and continued on...and found I was one stitch short. I backed up...still one stitch short. I put the thumb stitches back on the needles. Still one stitch short.

I am dead certain that I was counting those stitches at least every other round, if not more often. I cannot imagine where I lost that stitch. I can't find anywhere that a stitch was lost. I can't find any random extra decrease that I may have made. As far as I can tell the issue is not in the thumb stitches. I can't find it anywhere. I know that I could just increase an extra stitch and proceed, but frankly I'm afraid to do that without knowing where I went wrong. If there is a dropped stitch somewhere it will have to run eventually and that will be a problem. Still - I can't find one.

I put it down and decided to get out the other mitt and do the rest of the thumb. And...here's the really horrible part.

I can't find the almost-finished mitt. The SO and I have turned the house upside down (and discovered an extremely upsetting mouse nest in the process) without success. I called my mom to see if I maybe dropped it in their guest room. No luck. I'm terrified that I left it at the plane, and I'm certain that I had it here. Unfortunately, I have a very vivid imagination and I remember all sorts of things that never happened. I am sure I didn't take it out at the airport or on the plane, but again, "sure" for me is a relative term. And, even if I'm sure I didn't take it out on purpose, that does not rule out having dropped it out of the bag on accident.

I am extremely upset, not just because I don't have a present for my friend tomorrow, not even one completed mitt, but because this means that I will not be free of the Christmas knitting for even longer. The two things that I planned to knit for Christmas and I haven't finished either one of them and I am going to be knitting them FOREVER as punishment.

I know many people do not knit for Christmas do to this very feeling, but I really thought what I had on my list was doable (and it was, until work exploded, I got sick, and I added 3 other projects to my list).

I'm just so, so disappointed.

When the Christmas Knitting is over

I'm back at home, yay. More on that some other post. I need a moment of self-indulgence. I finished the mitts for my brother ("Just what I always wanted. A fabric tube"), the hat for my dad ("I thought you could wear it when you went hunting." "We usually try not to wear things the same color as the deer.") and the scarf for my mom was declared done somewhere around midnight or 1 a.m. Christmas Eve/morning, when it reached 3 feet and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer ("Oh, it's cute!").

I still have to finish the Orchid Mitts and Whispering Pines. I worked on the second mitt on the plane and finished the cuff, so I'm working on the hand now. It's going fairly quickly and I am confident I will be able to finish it before Wednesday, which is my deadline.

I've finished the body of Whispering Pines and I'm all set now to work on the edging. However, it's kind of a lot to get done by Wednesday and I am working this week. Therefore...I may need an extension on that one. Dangit.

However, it is JUST BARELY possible that I might be able to finish it and I am going to knit like the wind until there is NO HOPE LEFT. But, the mitts are the priority because I see that recipient more often. Also, I am confident I can finish those. It's possible that if I worked on WP I might not manage to finish either and then I would really feel lousy. SO. A ways yet to go, but I am dreaming of new projects.

Therefore, I present to you, a list of what I plan to knit when the Christmas Knitting is done:

--Swirled Pentagon Pullover, a.k.a. My First Sweater (Valley Yarns Colrane)
--Hemlock Ring Blanket (Valley Yarns Northampton)
--Swan Lake (Jaggerspun Zephyr, ebony with hematite beads)
--Hamsa Scarf (Homestead yarn)

Things I'd like to get back to:
--Moonlight Sonata (Rowan KSH)
--MS4? Maybe? Eh. Not sure about this one...I've got a lot of stuff I would rather work on.

I have lost the coffee pot rock socks. I can't figure out what I did with them. I may have dropped them at church or something, or stuck them in a bag - as long as I didn't drop them in the road somewhere they should make their way back to me eventually. I'm well known to be the knitter. In the meantime I have started a pair of socks using the Blue Ridge Yarns that I got at Nature's Yarns a while back. So far, I have received no yarn for Christmas, so I may have a little sock yarn binge in January, because I'm definitely running low.

Victory is mine!

And it feels soooooo good. I may never knit with another sock yarn again.



Oh, that? Um...elves wound it.

Last night the women's ministry had another fellowship night, and this one was cookie decorating. Behold, the fruits of my labor:





Sandy of Sandyland Cookies taught it, and it was fun, although I think the SO would have gotten more out of it than I did. He's a baker and famous for his cookies.

I allocated today for knitting and rest. I was thwarted in the resting, unfortunately - I had bad dreams and finally just decided to get up rather than continue to flee tidal waves and killer whales (I don't know what my subconscious has against orcas. When I'm awake I think they're beautiful and powerful and generally awesome - but in my sleep they eat people. Go figure.)

That just left more time for knitting. A whole day of Christmas knitting progress! Right?

Yeah...not so much. Grumperina came out with a new hat pattern. I knit her Odessa pattern back in April for the sister of one of my church ladies who was undergoing chemo for some fairly serious cancer. She did very well in the treatment, and her cancer was in remission for several months. but this week she had to go to the hospital and it looks like she's going to have to go back into treatment, so...



It's a quick knit. It won't throw me too far off schedule, and even if it does - they'll understand.

Decision Made

Yesterday I put away MS4 and picked up Whispering Pines (eventually - there was a slightly panicked search when I could not find the ziplock it was in, but the SO came to the rescue, finding it in the craft room before I had time to work up into a real fit about it).

I'm on Chart C on Whispering Pines and when I looked at the picture and mapped where I was to the picture of the finished shawls - I have kind of a lot of work to do. It was definitely the right decision to pick it up.

I have to say in the interests of full blog disclosure - the last couple charts of MS4 made it not so hard to put it down. There's nothing wrong with them, per se...I'm just not sure I want to knit them as is. The designer's theme, now revealed, is "Serendipity" and it seems that the stole does not represent anything in particular, so much as the element of surprise, which...seems to me to be kind of redundant in a mystery stole. I'm a little disappointed - I love to knit things with a story, which is one of the reason I like so many of Pink Lemon Twist's patterns, they are always well thought out and representative of the story she is trying to tell, and that appeals to my romantic English major self. (also, my pedantic nature wants to point out that 'serendipity' and 'surprise' do not mean the same thing, but that is petty and I will not give in to it)

However, I do really like the pattern up through chart 5 - to me it looks like campfires in the woods with mountains in the background, and I really love it. But, I'm thinking about changing the last couple of charts to fit with my idea. I think this would basically consist of taking out the diamonds. I think I can convince myself that the flower-type motif in the very center of the shawl is the sun (I need to look at a few more knitted pictures), but the diamonds just don't really work for me. I'm considering leaving the small ones on chart 5, but the big ones in the middle just don't quite do it for me.

I bought two skeins of KP Gloss lace in Sterling and the KnitSpot pattern Tudor Grace to make a scarf for my mom for Christmas. I want a pattern I can memorize and carry around (so that it won't compete for knitting time with Whispering Pines) and that one seems like it will fit the bill. The pattern is written for sock weight yarn, but I want it to be small and filmy, since I'm intending it more for an accent with clothing than for warmth or anything like that, so I bought laceweight yarn. My mom lives in Texas and doesn't generally have to wear a scarf for warmth anymore, but she likes them with clothes. I'm hoping the grey will go with some of her things. And if it's not done by December, it can be my airplane knitting!

Back!

I beg forgiveness for the long blog silence. I am, generally speaking, kind of embarassed to blog without photos, so I tend to not blog when I don't have any. But! Look what we have today!



Caledonian Mist in Handmaiden Casbah Peacock. This photo is actually a little old and out of date, as this sock is finished - but the second sock looks basically the same, so - pretend. Except the second sock is not nearly this long yet. So...I'm both behind, and ahead with this picture?

Regardless, just try to tell me that isn't stunning. It's all I can do not to go buy all the Casbah I can get my hands on.

Next up, MS4.



I am woefully behind. This is about halfway through Clue 3. I am a failure of a mystery stoler. Have a detail shot.



I admit I have been ignoring the community aspect of this project almost entirely. I haven't looked at any pictures or any discussion, so forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but - the yarnover motifs look like campfires or burning incense to me. Interesting.

I have a condition, which may be universal or may be universal to new knitters, or it may be just me, but generally speaking, when I look at a chart full of yarnovers...that's all I see. I can't see the picture until I have actually done the knitting. Hmm, now that I look at it, the beads look like they could be pine trees. So, maybe I am right on the camping theme?

I personally hate camping, but that's okay, I think I can forgive the stole, since it is in fact really pretty. Not really sure where the mass of yarnovers that are clues 4 and 5 will go, though. But, that is the fun, isn't it?

Here's a closer look at the top:



I need to try to remember to crop my photos tighter.

The color in these photos isn't bad; I took it upstairs and photographed it without a flash by an open window, and then when I got it on the computer I adjusted it until the color of the cloth I was using for a background was close to correct. However, I am kind of thinking that if there really is a camping theme, I'd have liked to use a green yarn instead of this marine blue - but oh well, that's the Mystery, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm enjoying the project, except one problem - I've got two other lace projects of about the same level of complexity that are in process. This was a mistake. I don't really get anxiety over multiple projects if they are different types of projects, because different projects are appropriate for different kinds of knitting time. However, I do get nervous when I have multiple projects competing for the same type of knitting time. I have 3 lace projects going now that require about the same amount of attention - Moonlight Sonata, Whispering Pines, and MS4. I have worked on MS4 exclusively and I would, I think, be okay with that, except that Whispering Pines is a Christmas present and I fear that I won't finish it in time. I thought I would be okay because MS4 ends in October and then I would have all of November and most of December to do Whispering Pines, but I am starting to worry, especially since I am so far behind on MS4. I am considering two options:

1 - Work on MS4 until the knitalong is over, and then stop wherever I am on it and pick up Whispering Pines as I intended.

2 - Accept that I am not going to catch up anyway, and put down MS4 now until Whispering Pines is finished. Download and store all the clues until I am ready to pick it up again.

I'm leaning toward option 1 at this point.

I do have one other project for Christmas, a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend. I have the yarn, Little Knits Indie II in Burgandy, but I haven't started yet. In fact I don't think I have checked to see whether I have the right size needles either - note to self, do that.

I am not too worried about getting those done, but if the pattern is correct I should have enough yarn for 2 pair, and I would like to make the second for another friend.

I am resisting the urge to mentally commit to other presents, just in case. I'd like to make a pair of socks for my mom, and I'd like to make a hat for my dad, to go in their stockings (my mom stuffs the stockings so I especially like to stick a little something in for her when she is not looking), but I have not bought yarn so that I don't end up overcommitting (although I am really quite sure I could make a pair of plain socks for my mom, I mean really now, surely I can handle a pair of simple stockinette socks in two and a half months - although a lacy silky scarf would be kind of neat to put in her stocking as well and I do have a bunch of KP Gloss in the stash...).

I am totally doomed, aren't I?

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.

A decision

My friend has settled on Urban Necessity in Swish Superwash Wisteria. I'm pretty excited, I think it's an adorable pattern that will serve her needs.

Drumroll please...

So, what is the pretty object that my darling friend would like to have? That knitted item that shall be of sufficient loveliness to tide her over the period of scrimping and staving that students must endure?

"A really warm hat. And gloves."

I think maybe she missed the point of my offer. Still, I said I would and I will. I asked some questions about what she wanted out of these objects, and provided a couple of examples to see if any of them struck her fancy, including Urban Necessity and Oat Couture Tayberry Hat and Gloves. We'll see what she picks.