A lack of forward motion

This weekend was so busy that I didn't get much knitting done, and the knitting that I did get done is not particularly blogworthy. I got a lot done on my hemlock ring blanket on Friday night and some on Saturday and a teeny bit on Sunday morning, but the whole thing still looks like a giant purple blob so I haven't even attempted to photograph it. I had hoped to get my sweater sewn up this weekend but it just didn't happen. I had some work that had to be done over the weekend, and I spent the rest of it out various places. I did finish the Caribbean socks earlier in the week, but I didn't photograph them either. (Tip: They both look like this.)

I did, however, wear them on Monday, which was lovely since the weather is gray and rainy. In fact, I have worn handknit socks all three days this week and it is very nice to have enough now that I can do that. Yesterday was the embossed stitch socks from C*EYE*BER Fiber (I'm hoping to get some more at MD sheep & wool, since I really liked that yarn and her website has been barren for ages) and today my favorite Casbah socks.

I do think the caribbean socks turned out a little more loose than I generally like my socks. The leg is fine but the foot is a little baggy. I think if I had to do it over, I would knit the bottom of the foot, where the stitching is plain, on my size 1 needle and leave the top of the foot on the 2. That way the part with the pattern would still be stretchy, but the tighter fabric on the bottom would make the end result a little less floopy.

I'm at the end of the standard chart on the Hemlock Ring but I still have a lot of yarn left, so I figure I will keep going until I hit the end of the extended chart or until I run out of yarn, whichever comes first. I'm definitely at the 'slogging along' point, though. I'm ready to be done! Also, the thing is getting kind of heavy. I moved it to a longer cable last night, and that took some of the weight off, but the stitch pattern wants the cable to go all swoopy (as feather and fan does) which makes moving the stitches along it a little more difficult now that they have room to move. Ah, trials and tribulations. I know I can stop at any point now and that gives me comfort - but I hate to quit right before the finish line. I am eyeing the yarn a little nervously, because I don't have a very good concept of how much I need to have left over. I'm afraid of getting 3/4 of the way through the bind off and running out! Last night I got through the first row of the extended chart, and I'm kind of thinking I might be able to do one more pattern row but no more than that. I'm not sure I have enough yarn to make it to all 3 extended rows. Which would both be annoying and a relief - It'd feel like getting to the last mile of the marathon and finding out the track ends because the road is still under construction, but at least I'd be done!)

Other than that, no sweater progress, no swan lake progress. I did go to one of the yarn shops in Alexandria that I wanted to see. I managed to buy only a couple of balls of charity yarn, which is breaking my diet a little bit but since it's for charity, I don't think it really counts. More importantly, I got to look at and touch some of the yarns that I had seen online and was interested in. I am now really jonesing for some Schaffer Heather. The Alchemy lines were stunning but very expensive. I enjoyed looking at some of the local artist yarns as well. I don't think I will make the trek out there very often (the parking situation alone would scare me off), but when I want something special or I'm planning to get a treat I will definitely hop that way.

We also went to the bead store and I picked out some beads for some of the other projects I was looking at. Although, if I had been smart I would have checked my patterns because the Shipwreck Shawl? Takes FIVE THOUSAND BEADS. I can tell you this - I did not buy enough. But, I did find beads that I like for it, so at least I know what I'm looking for.

I'm also in a bit of a quandry with the yarn I planned. My ravelry stash notes said I had 6 skeins of KP Gloss, but there were only 5 in the ziplock when I got the bag out of the closet. I bought this so long ago that KP does not have a record (or they may, but it's not on the website) so I don't know if I actually bought six and took a skein out (I don't know why, maybe just to look at or pet or think about) or if I only bought 5 and I made a mistake on the ravelry notes. The pattern I originally bought it for requires 1090 yards according to the ravelry page, so I PROBABLY bought 6. But where number 6 could be, I don't know. I suppose I could carry on with 5 and just make a smaller shawl.

I think my next project, once I get the hemlock ring off the needles, is going to be a Water Turtles shawl from Wrapped in Comfort. I'm tired of constantly being cold in the office, and the pattern repeat should be fairly easy to memorize, so that can be my easy travel project. I have four skeins of Jojoland Melody at home that have been waiting for this project. I should be able to get it done just in time for it to get warm out and render it totally useless. But, if I don't knit it, I will be cold for months, just you wait.

I have just been informed that a friend of the SO is in town and is having a baby shower on Saturday. I'm extremely miffed. I can't get anything for a baby knit by Saturday!! Does he expect me to show up with a store-bought gift? That is just not acceptable. Maybe I can do a pair of booties or baby socks. I'll have to check ravelry and see what I can find that looks quick, that I have the pattern for, and that I have or can locally find yarn for.

*Click*

I had a terrible day yesterday and so I confined my knitting to my hemlock ring blanket last night, as I am sure that I would have been doomed to some terrible mishap that would leave me weeping in the corner (again) if I tried anything even remotely complicated. I also made the SO cook the spaghetti because if the rest of my day was any indicator, I would have managed to set it on fire.

But I did remember to finish the upload so here is the beginning of Swan Lake:



And seamed sleeve #1:



Very exciting, I know. The sleeve may be a little long, but I should be able to fold up the garter stitch hem if it is. I think.

The beads are a little lower-contrast than I had planned on for Swan Lake - they don't show up in the picture at all, though you can see them in person - but I think they will still be fine.

The Answer

This weekend, I:

--blocked & seamed the sleeves A sleeve of my sweater. I blocked both, but only got one seamed. It turns out that seaming is a soul-sucking demon from which there is no escape. I decided for my own sanity to seam the second sleeve later.
--finished the front of my sweater.
--spun quite a bit on Friday night and some on Saturday, and got through almost all of the Spunky Eclectic fiber from January. Had to quit when my burning resentment of the fiber for being so difficult (even though I already knew that merino and I have issues) became too great. Have about two lenghts of the roving left to spin, then I plan to chain ply this mess and see what happens.
--hauled off and started something totally new to feed my lace craving, Swan Lake. Made it through chart A and most of chart B.
--worked on the Hemlock blanket, but didn't get very far. It turns out the speed with which one can complete the first couple of chart rows is not indicative of the speed at which you will continue. Funny how that happens on things that are constantly getting bigger.
--slept late and stared into space, but did so with my fingers moving. I also watched some stuff from the DVR and most of Goodfellows on Netflix.

I had photos, but I'm a ditz and though I put them in the flickr uploader tool, apparently I forgot to actually hit "upload" so...photos later.

What SHALL I do?

With the weekend before me, the world seems full of possiblities. Will I...

--block & seam the sleeves of my sweater?
--finish the front of my sweater?
--Take a sweater break and finish the sock?
--Finally declare defeat on the moonlight sonata shawl?
--Finish my caribbean sock?
--Spend the whole weekend spinning? (unlikely - my back hurts if I stay at the wheel too long, but I can still get some good time in)
--Haul off and start something totally new to feed my lace cravings, like Swan Lake or the long-delayed Icarus?
--Power through the Hemlock Ring blanket? (it seems more possible than I would have believed, though this is probably somewhat far-fetched)
--Sleep late, stare into space, and accomplish nothing?

This is a question I will be pondering all day at least.

I have sleeves!

The sleeves are done, yay!

Also, I measured - I got 5.5 inches done on the front during Coraline, for a total of six (I did the garter hem before the movie).

8.5 inches to go on the front and then it gets exciting. Clearly, I need to watch another movie or two.

A weekend full of progress

Although I didn't take pictures because they would just be boring, I did get a lot done this weekend. I had several events to go to that were knit-friendly, so I made progress on several different projects. I'm at the heel of my second Caribbean sock, I'm into about the fourth increase row of the feather & fan chart for the Hemlock Ring blanket, and I made progress on both the sleeves and the front of my sweater.

I cast on the sweater front because we were going to see Coraline and I needed something easy to knit, and I thought managing the two balls of yarn for the sleeves would be problematic. I was also in the increase section and I didn't want to go past where I needed to increase in the dark. This turned out to be a good decision, since it turns out you can get a whole lot of stockinette accomplished during a movie. I have maybe three to five inches of the front knitted (I did cast on and knit the garter rows on the hem before we left for the theater, but that's maybe only an inch.

I did work on the sleeves, enough to discover that over the decrease rows I did end up with substantially more length than I was supposed to have. I expected this to happen. The instructions are to work the decreases and then work even until the sleeve is a certain total length. According to the diagram, there should be about two inches of even knitting between the decreases and that certain length. I only had about an inch to go. Kind of a big difference!

I am definitely going to have to compensate for this somehow during the yoke, and I think I will do this by eliminating the first diamond at the start of the yoke. I'll do the one decrease row that happens at the end of that diamond, and then work the rest of the yoke as written. I think that take off about an inch of length to get me in the ballpark of where I need to be. I hope. I hope it doesn't affect the look of the sweater too terribly much.

I will also need to take this into consideration when I knit the sweater front. There's decreasing and casting off and all kinds of stuff at the top that will have to get done in a certain amount of space. However, I'm not too worried. My biggest concern is the front not matching the back, and since the yarn on the back is still attached, I can add a couple of rows if I need to. I like my sweaters to be long (waist-length sweaters never look good on me, I really need them at the hips or lower) so I'm not fretting over this too badly. Much. Really. (I deserve every worry I get for going ahead without worrying about the fact that I didn't have row guage, even after I realized my stitch guage was also too big. I really should have tried it on smaller needles. I probably could have saved myself a lot of fuss. Oh well...I've got a total of about 30 inches of sweater knitting that I don't plan to rip out until I have to, so nothing to do but forge ahead. I hope I am not being intolerably stupid, but if I am I will always have the "well, it was my first" excuse for why the thing looks like it was made for an ape.)

I also did some spinning this weekend, and I finished off the sparkly purple batt from Butterfly Girl. Tonight I plied it, and it's soaking as I type. Before I go to bed, I'll hang it up. I ended up with a lot more on one bobbin than the other, so I wound the remainder off into two center-pull balls. I was just going to do one and ply from both ends, but the singles broke at a spot that approximated the halfway mark, so I just went ahead and made two balls. I have about 250 feet (not yards) of yarn if my reckoning is correct. I'm going to use it on the end of a scarf or something like that to give it a little pizzazz. It's largely thinner than my previous attempts although there are some spectacularly uneven bits. It was a fun experience.

What to do?

My, this is a blog heavy week.

Well, do you remember this thing?



Elann's Moonlight Sonata in RYC Kidsilk Haze. It's bigger than it was in this photo, but I dropped it like a hot rock for Mystery Stole 4 and the Whispering Pines shawl. I could do that without guilt because MS4 has a set time period and Whispering Pines was a Christmas present. But, now that those obstacles are out of the way, I have WIP guilt.

No big deal, right? I'll just finish it and then I'll be done and I'll be happy and can move on.

Except, there's just one thing. I HATE it. Not so much the way it looks, though it doesn't inspire me the way the sample photo does. But I really, really hate knitting it, and I think it's mostly the yarn's fault. For one thing, the color is too dark; I let my romantic fancy run away with me and the idea of knitting Moonlight Sonata in a color called "Nightly" just really appealed to me. For another - it's just a little tough to work with for the level of stitch manipulation that's required in this shawl.

And, just to add insult to injury, there's a dropped stitch in the middle of one of the sunspot thingies several repeats back. normally, this would not be a big deal; I would get a crochet hook and fix it. But the problem is, it appears to have been dropped from a decrease, so there's no where to ladder it up TO. I'm really not sure what to do about it. I have a few options:

1. Rip back to it and fix it, and accept that I am going to have to be knitting on this thing that much longer. To this, I have one word to say: Mohair.

2. Drop selected stitches down and drive myself crazy with the fiddly madness of unding and then redoing all those stitches. This is not an appealing option to me, since the motion of the pattern would make identifying the correct stitches to drop difficult and annoying. Also, mohair. The fact that this dropped stitch is still sitting in the middle of its sunspot while I merilly painstakingly knitted twenty or thirty more rows should tell you that dropping sitches on this thing will be no picnic.

3. Snip the yarn at the top tip of the sunspot, right at the spot where you knit numerous stitches together (which is probably where the trouble began in the first place, undo only the sunspot stitches, redo them while somehow holding on to the snipped thread (the mohair works in my favor this time), and then felt the snipped spot together again. Fiddly, and slightly dangerous, but theoretically possible. It frightens me that this is the most appealing of my options.

4. Use a tiny piece of the yarn to tie the loose stitch into place, and count on the fuzzy, felty stickyness of mohair to both keep the knot from untying and hide the lump. This is the second most appealing of my options, and while the previous option is certainly possible, it is kind of scary.

Then, there's option 5, which is to throw my hands up and call the whole thing a wash. And, honestly, I really think the only thing that has kept me from doing that is knowing that this yarn is expensive and frogging it will be hell.

I am generally not an advocate of knitting a project that you don't like. There's too many other things I would rather be doing (Swan Lake!). In fact, the other day I felt like knitting lace and I was so turned off by the idea of working on this shawl that I went upstairs and got out MS4 and worked on that instead. Since that is also a UFO and I didn't feel guilty about working on it the way I would have felt guilty starting something new. (actually, this turned out to be a good thing, since some time away bled away some of the ill feeling I had towards the center of the stole, and I am now able to think rationally about how I will change it to make me happy, which means I may actually finish the thing).

I'm kept from a chronic case of startitis by this wierd little timer in my brain, which arbitrarily decides when I have been working on something too long and flips a switch that means I feel guilty starting something new until I finish that item. There is also some OCD part of my brain that doesn't like seeing too many WIPs in a row on my Ravelry project page. I'm okay as long as I am knitting items that take up different types of knitting time - I have TV knitting (sweater, hemlock ring) and exercise bike knitting (attempting to get a pair of plain socks started but can't find the right needle size) and I have travel knitting (Carribean socks) and I have fiddly lace knitting ($@@#$ sonata) and as long as I don't have too many projects competing for time, I am happy and content. If I start 3 fiddly lace things at once I am destined for gloom and despair at how long it's taking me to finish, and if I start too many TV things at once I get bored, etc.

So, this project is clearly weighing on me and I am clearly avoiding it, which says to me, that I shouldn't knit it. But, if I decide not to knit it, then I have to frog all that mohair or cut the ball and call it a loss. But, if I keep going, I may never knit lace again out of sheer frustration.

Maybe what I ought to do is go find out what else I can knit with four (or three and a half, if I don't frog) balls of kid mohair that WOULD make me happy. Then I can lay the pattern aside, because I do really like the sample photo and in another yarn I do think it would be quite pretty and not so frustrating to knit.

****

In other news I didn't make it to the bead store last night even though I was in the area, because I am silly and read the hours for their other location instead of the one for the location I was at. I did look at some of the beads I have at home, because I do have some white and neutral beads that miiiiight work, maybe.

I got a very handsome offer on yesterday's blog post from Angela for beads, so that's something to explore. Angela, I'll be in touch! ::phone fingers::

*****ETA: Seascape may be a winner...Moonlight sonata, your days may be numbered!