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.

Dangit, I was promised shrinkage!

I finished the baby blanket and the bunny blanket buddy this weekend, wove in all the ends, and triumphantly dumped the whole thing (including the hat) in the wash for a hot bath. I then nervously transferred the whole thing to the dryer, still wondering if I was going to end up with a couple of potholders and a washcloth. Just to ensure that I shrank the dang things all they were going to shrink, I set the dryer to the setting that said COTTON - HOT. I went back to my couch, knit on Odessa (love it, except for the sliding the beads down the string...they do not go as easily as one might hope), and worried.

The dryer buzzed. I went back and checked. Still wet. Really wet, in fact. Started the dryer back up again. Knit some more. Buzzer rang. Went back and check. Still wet. Set the dryer to "more dry" and started it up again. Buzzed a third time - STILL NOT COMPLETELY DRY. But, the dampness was mostly in the middle so I gave up, took it out, took it to the couch, held my breath, and measured.

It shrank ONE INCH. In LENGTH. Less than that in width. I couldn't believe it. I measured the bunny. Barely anything. I measured the hat. What's going on? My swatch shrank like whoa and on the project I get...nothing??

I remember the Yarn Harlot's advice. Swatches lie.

But...but...

I cast my suspicious glance to the dryer. I was house-sitting, remember. This was not the same dryer than shrank the swatch. This was a fancy, high-tech dryer, that might have some anti-shrinking technology.

I decided I should wash it at home, just to be sure. Andrea probably doensn't have a fancy anti-shrink dryer either. I better try again, just to be sure. I'm back home tonight. Tonight, we will settle this shrinking issue once and for all.

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.

So close!!

Three repeats left on the baby blanket. It was really, really tempting to stay up until I was done last night, but I finished repeat number 10 just as Top Chef was ending at 11 p.m., and I still had to get the pups pottied and corralled into bed, and I hadn't changed or washed my face or brushed my teeth or any of the normal pre-bed routine, so in an uncharacteristic show of good sense, I folded the blanket up, put it out of any possible puppy reach (just in case) and went to bed.

I expect to have a lot of yarn left over - one whole skein and most of a second, so I am planning to do the bunny buddy blanket and possibly a second hat, larger than the first one, for when the baby gets a little older. We'll see how sick I am of the yarn (not that it isn't great, but how long can you knit in brown and white without weeping for a change?)...I may go ahead and wash all the items and see how much the initial baby hat shrinks before I decide to go for another one. It seems really teeny to me already but I am told newborns are very small and it will be fine. I continue to be paranoid that this particular newborn will have a very large head and the hat will inexplicably not fit.

I am thinking about washing the hat but not putting it in the dryer, which should prevent it from shrinking...but I am also paranoid that Andrea will wash it and then it will shrink and then I would feel bad. It only took one evening to knit the thing, so I really should just suck it up and let it shrink and redo it if it is going to be too small.

The end is in sight

It looks huge, but it's not that big. I mean, it's still bigger than it is supposed to be. I did decide to go ahead and knit the extra extra stripe repeat just to be safe. Now I am kind of hoping it DOES shrink a lot because...it's definately big.

I think I am going to have a skein left over, so I am thinking about using it to knit a pattern from the Lion Brand website for a bunny blanket buddy (I am too lazy to look it up). Someone on Ravelry did one with one skein of Pakucho.

When that is done...



I am planning to use this to knit Odessa. I had a small heart attack when MagKnits went down yesterday, but thankfully I had already printed out a copy of the pattern. The color in that photo is not quite right - it is a little bluer - in fact that color actually looks more like what I THOUGHT I would get. It's definately more of a powder blue. But the photo is pretty, so I will forgive it the innacurate color.

So awesome

Remember this?



Now it looks like this:









Knitting is the coolest thing ever. This is my first completed shawl, the Bigfoot Shawl from wrapped in comfort. I finished it just in time to give it to the recipient on Easter, even though her mission trip was long over. I'm glad I did it anyway.

Now I have started on the Organic Baby Wrapper and Hat set. I actually have finished the hat except for the crochet border (I didn't have the right size hook). I am 4 repeats into the blanket. I added another repeat on the width and I plan to add a couple to the length as well, because my swatch shrank in both directions when washed and dried. I don't want to put a blanket in the wash and then pull out a washcloth!! I am a little concerned about the hat - I compensated for the shrinkage in length but I didn't change the width, so...we'll see how it comes out. I'm a little nervous on that one. I am trying to tell myself that it won't shrink as much in the width because the pattern stitch will not act the way stockinnette did. I feel kind of stupid for not knitting any pattern repeats into my swatch, but the guage is given in stockinnette, so that's what I did! I am still new at this. Next time I will be somewhat less impatient, and I will knit two swatches. But, honestly, it's a baby hat. It's not much bigger than a generous swatch anyway. I have decided not to worry about it. It took me two evenings to do - I can always have a do-over. Although, I probably should weigh it and see how much yarn it took before I do that. I do still have to do the contrasting stripes in the wrapper.

Anyway. I'm still at 4 total active projects, now, with the two pairs of socks, the laceweight shawl I haven't touched since I broke my needle, and the baby wrapper.

Plus, you know, the hibernating stuff - the witterings hat and the waffle scarf and the garter stitch shawl of just-kill-me-now. Although, honestly, I have probably imporved at knitting enough since I started knit that shawl that I might could motor through the rest of it if I just put my mind to it. I am certainly educated enough now to say that I should have used much larger needles. Le sigh...

I suppose I could always felt the thing into a placemat or something. Mwa ha.

Finishings

I managed to get 2 things off my progress in process list this weekend:

1) Shedir


Look very pretty...but it is very big. The brim comes down over my eyes. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet.

2) Snug Harbor



It has become Lulu's bed when she sleeps on the bed. She also slept in it on the floor for a little while on Saturday, but there are many cushier beds around the house. I had planned to knit the bottom with both colors held double, but I miscalculated (rather spectacularly) where the bottom actually started so...yeah.

But they're done! This means I have 4 active WIPs (and two hibernating ones, but we will not discuss this). One is the beginner's triangle, one is the Bigfoot Shawl, one is the starry night socks, and the last is the BBS.

Yesterday I worked on the shawl some, even though I really should have finished the toes on the first BBS so that I could get started on the second. The pups and I are house-and-dog-sitting for a friend this week so there will be lots of knitting time (I hope).

I also selected, ordered, and received this in the past week:



Elann.com Pakucho Organic Cotton in Natural and I think Cafe (I can't remember off the top of my head). This is for an Organic Baby Wrapper for a friend who is having a baby in August. We don't know the sex of the baby yet and I didn't want to wait, so I just went with neutrals. The dark will be the main color and the light will make the contrast and, hopefully, the hat.