Square - Uh, ROW 1.

I cast on for my sweater this past week and knitted happily along on the back. I LOVE the yarn (Valley Yarns Colrain in Grape Jelly), it's beautiful and it feels so wonderful to knit with, and it's not splitty. At first the plain stockinette was kind of boring, but it grew pretty quickly and I enjoyed watching it after a while. I got through a ball and a half of yarn and was about 8 inches in when I thought, you know, I should measure this to see how wide it is. Make sure I'm getting what I'm supposed to, and all that.

Yeah, I might be a little slow.

I measured cheerfully, and found to my disgust that I was getting 24 inches where I was supposed to be getting 22. I thought, well, no big deal, it'll just be a little big, and - here's the kicker. I kept going. I am a moron. It bugged me and it bugged me and I finished out the second ball of yarn and measured and again and discovered that I had been a little optimistic before, that it was actually over 25 inches wide and I was forced to face facts...I was knitting a tent. A giant, beautiful, soft, tent. The thought of having to rip out all that beautifully even stockinette and reknit it with wavy yarn made me want to weep.

I put it away. I fussed. I harassed the SO into entering into my misery, but we both agreed. It was madness and folly to continue on.

I got a fresh ball of yarn and started the back again, but this time I cast on for the size one down from what I was working on. I debated for some time between switching to a smaller needle or knitting the smaller size, and finally settled on the smaller size just because I was relatively certain, based on the amount my initial attempt giant swatch was off by, that this would give me the correct width, and I could not bear the thought of attempting it with a smaller needle only to find that I was going to have to start over a third time. I'm still questioning this decision a little, since I would kind of like it if the fabric were a little tighter, but I'm forging ahead anyway. I'm actually a little concerned because my row guage is also slightly off, but I don't really have a problem with the sweater being a little longer than it is supposed to be. I think. And if I do, I'm reasonably certain I can fix it in the knitting. The only part that is not fixed in length (in other words, the only part that does not say 'knit until it is x inches long') is the spiral chart, so if I find it is too long, I can always take out a diamond.

The upside of this whole thing is, that I was able to change the hem, which I was really wishing I had done. The sweater is knit entirely in stockinette so the bottom edge rolls, and the roll was driving me crazy. So, I knit a garter stitch hem on it when I restarted, to control the roll. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I love it. Almost enough to not be better about knitting it twice. Really, I wouldn't be bitter at all, except for the intense pain I feel at the thought of the wavyness of that frogged yarn. I *think* I may actually have enough yarn not to have to rip out the first try giant swatch.

I know that I could always frog the yarn, reskein it on my niddy noddy, and wash it to take out the kinks, but...I'm lazy. If I can avoid that, I will. We shall see.

Thank God I love this yarn so much. If I were indifferent toward it I think I would shoot myself, but since I have such an appreciation for its softness and beauty, it's okay.

I just hope it wears at least moderately okay - it will break my heart if it comes apart the second time I wear it!

In which I have issues

Issue 1: Noro Scarf

My noro scarf is finished.

But, I had issues with my cast on edge. It was floopy and flared and I hated it. If I had taken a picture, you would have hated it too. I decided while I knitted that when I finished I would go back, snip the cast on, unravel the beginning a bit, and then cast off on that end too, since generally speaking my cast offs are much nicer looking than my cast on. (Something about that doesn't sound right, but moving on.)

Well, it turns out that you can't unravel 1x1 rib from that end. It doesn't work. I got out my scissors and cut across the entire cast on row and ended up having to pick all the bits out because there is no unraveling. This was definitely an issue. I pondered what to do about it, and then remembered that I had been on the Yarn Harlot's blog fussing around in the archives because I was bored, and I had read an entry about a crochet cast off. This seemed a promising solution. I was worried that it would be too tight, but it turns out, it was perfect.



I liked it so much that I picked out my original cast-off and did the same on the other end. I photographed it, but it looks exactly the same, so...just picture the above in different colors. Brilliant. I've never had scarf ends look this good. I'm pleased.

Issues resolved. Scarf complete.



I have to say, I don't like it as much as I thought I would. I mean, it's okay, I don't dislike it, but it's not the best scarf in the history of scarves, period. Also, I have a few million ends to weave in. Several knots and a couple places where the yarn came apart. I got impatient towards the end and just knitted past a couple of knots, but they show and I really should have done it right. But, at least I don't have to weave in those ends. Whatever, I'll weave the ends in during tv time or something.

Issue 2: Tilli Thomas Bag

See previous post re the sillyness of expecting a silky ribbon yarn to hold its shape when wound into a center-pull ball. I got the yarns untangled and rewound, and now the bag is done!



It only took one skein of each yarn after all. I really thought I was going to need more, but nope...one skein knit 1 crochet 2 Souffle, one skein Berocco Glace (I which I believe has been discontinued), with both yarns held together. It doesn't really show in the picture, but I put in three rows of staggered yarn overs in hopes of letting a little more of the red of the bag peak through. In hindsight, I think I would have knitted this at looser gauge, but I think it's really cute as it is.

Issue 3: Caribbean Sock

This sock was great. I love the colorway, the pattern was easy, I managed to cable sock yarn without a cable needle without too much trouble. I was a little concerned about that, because I knit so tightly that my stitches pop down a few rows as soon as I take them off the needle, but it wasn't too big of an issue.



See? Isn't it pretty? Doesn't it look so innocent? I just went happily along, until I decided to try it on and see what kind of length I needed to put on it and then...then I found the issue.



I can't get it any further than that. It's stuck. I'll never be able to get it over my heel. The ribbing's okay, but the cabled stitches don't want to stretch. I got out my needle gauge and used the ruler edge to check my gauge. 10 stitches to the inch - 2 more than the pattern-specified gauge. I'm going to rip it back to the ribbing and reknit on larger needles. However, I also have issues with this plan, because I don't have a pair of number 2 needles free and my 3's are also engaged with the Orchid Mitts.

Issue 4: Cards for savings bonds

My boss gives his grandkids savings bonds for their birthdays, and he often asks me to make cards for them, since his preferred approach of sticking them into a plain white envelope has not been well received in the past. I made these two cards this week:





Not bad, eh? So what's the issue?

The issue is that he wanted me to make one for Kennedy, not Paige. -_- So, um...I'll be making another card before this Friday. Two, actually. Then all four grandkids are finished and I don't have to worry about it again for a while.

Issue 4: Orchid Mitts

Click the orchid mitts tag to hear the whole saga of issues. Left on a plane, messed up the thumb gusset, etc etc blah blah. So, this is more of an issue resolution than anything else. I photographed, but it wasn't interesting, so we'll revisit when I finish the rest of the mitt.

Efficiency

I forgot that I had choir practice last night, so I didn't get home until around 10. This was problematic, as my sheets were in the washing machine and needed to be dried before they could be put on my bed so I could sleep (we will not discuss the incident that led to the need to immediately wash the sheets, but you can rest assured that it involved five pounds of furry mess-making expertise).

I fed the dogs and cleaned myself up and got ready for bed, and sat down to wait for my sheets to dry. Obviously, I needed something to knit. Unfortunately, I left my nearly completed coffee pot sock in the car. My garage is detached from the house so getting to it actually involves going outside, down the yard, around the garage for the neighboring unit and into mine, and back again, all in 30 degree weather, in my pajamas. Also unfortunately, I had already been back out to the car once, because I forgot the steak in the backseat which was to go in the crock pot this morning. It was clearly too late to risk screwing up the Christmas knitting, so I decided than just sitting there idle or going out to the car again, I would just cast on a hat with stash yarn. One of the ladies in my church is collecting warm things to send to her husband in Iraq, and I thought I could make a nice hat out of some green and tan yarn and give it to her, or else give it to my dad for Christmas. This would be easy and would not involve going out to the car. Let's count how many times I ended up going up and down the stairs for this.

Trip 1: Go upstairs to stash, find yarn and binder of Options needle tips, come back downstairs. Realize that I forgot the book with the pattern in it.

Trip 2: Go upstairs, search craft room bookshelf. Decide that the book must be in downstairs bookshelf.

Trip 3: Determine that book is not in fact in downstairs bookshelf, and decide that I did not check the craft room book shelf closely enough. Go back upstairs to check the craft room bookshelf. Fail to find book, think to check bedroom knitting basket. Locate book, go back downstairs.

Trip 4: Discover, through use of newly relocated book, that project calls for size 9 needles. Discover as well that size 9 needles are not in Options binder, and neither are size 10. Spend several minutes debating whether size 8 or 10.5 would work. Find that plating seems to have chipped off of size 10.5. Look at size 8, waver, remember that I am a supertight knitter. Stew in indecision for a moment or 10. Check nearby project bag for possible size 9 needles. Come up with 8 and 7.

Trip 5: Remember chocolate waffle scarf. Go upstairs armed with needle guage, discover that this is in fact where my size 9 needles are. Bring bag with scarf downstairs, deprive of needles, cap cables. Decide not to take scarf back upstairs and put it away just yet.

Trip 6: Attempt to pull center from yarn ball. Fail utterly. Get frustrated. Go upstairs, rewind ball into yarn cake on ball winder. Forget to take waffle scarf with.

All of this so that I could avoid going out to the car, where my sock awaited lacking only about half an inch of plain knitting and a toe, both of which I probably could have completed in the time it took me to start that #%$@!! hat.

I got maybe an inch of ribbing done on my hat before my sheets were finally dry.

I find I am suffering from some serious...I started to say startitis, but it's really more like craftitis. The SO's mom was making drop spine boxes from a kit she got at Paper Source and I REALLY wanted to make them, and yesterday I was looking longingly at cross stitch patterns, and thinking of the ones I have at home that have been so neglected. This is not a good time of year for the commitment to waver! I must persevere! Even if the mits I am making would fit perfectly in one of those little boxes and even if the recipient would love some of the Japanese papers that Paper Source has and ARGH! I AM TOO BROKE TO BE THINKING THIS WAY!