Surprisingly Insightful

I only interact with other knitters every other Monday night. On a regular basis, that is. I look forward to Knittervention every time. Not only as two hours of child-free knitting time, but a chance to bounce ideas and input from other knitters.

The other twenty-eight days of the month, I am stuck with my three male muggles. 

Last night, I was asking color advice. I am planning baby blanket set for cousin-in-law #2. I have already bought a pastel rainbow of colors and selected a pattern. The pattern calls for 12 sections, so six colors. I bought pink, yellow, green, blue and lavender. It wasn't until I was home I realized a color was missing: peach. I checked online, and yarn company makes a peach. So I went to the three local yarn stores, and came up empty. I found white a silver gray, but no peach. Online, the single peach skein would cost $6, which is reasonable, plus an additional $6 for shipping, which puts it close to unreasonable. 

So I went to my Council of Male Mufgles. How should I complete my rainbow? Overpriced but correct peach, white or silver?  The two  Muggles that DONT pay the bills advocated for peach.  My husband woke up from where he has fell asleep on the living room flooring enough to say "white". I don't think he put much thought in that. My bad, wrong time of night. 

 

Today, I swatched the new yarn for the Lovers Mittens. For lack of anyone else, I asked my sweeties opinion about the swatches. He was surprisingly perceptive. He knew which was "tighter", ie knit with the smaller needles. I actually feel like I had a semi-informed opinion on needle size. 

I should have asked him about the rainbow colors again. 

Today, it is all about the man who has actually picked up a few things about knitting, and the woman who loves him. 

A Rebel at Heart

I must have a latent rebel spirit. I don't know if it is my American ardor, or my 1/8  Irish ancestry. (Certainly can't credit the 3/8 French Canadian.) Rules get set, and I just help but break them. Even if I set the rules, I break my own rules. 

A couple days ago, I wrote about the great big ol' list of knitting that has to be finished in the next five months. Then I promptly started working on . . . something else. 

I don't know why. I just did. I saw a neglected project that only needed a repair and a few more rows. I had cast off  the Circle Charity blankie, then realized that I had screwed up. The edges curled unattractively. I knew what I had to do. I had to frog back the cast off, do a few rows of something that wouldn't curl, then cast off again. Not difficult, but the blankie sat there for a good month. I set up a schedule, and feel compelled to deviate from it. 

Hmmm, maybe I can use this in the future. Recognize the neglected project, set a schedule for something else, work on neglected project . . . 

The good news, I have finished those three rows of non-curling seed stitch, and casting off (while watching the first presidential debate). 

I need more wine, if not for the knitting, then for the politicians. 

Today, it is all about the schedule or anti-schedule. 

And Back On

What's worse than casting off hundreds of stitches around the circumference of s baby blankie?

Casting off, then realizing that the edge was unattractively curling, and frogging back those hundreds of stitches back into the needles to correct the glaringly obvious error. Apparently, after 25 years of knitting, I still have not learned that stockinette curls, and requires a border that does not curl by nature. 

There was another questionable lapse in judgement last night. Not my lapse, another regular at Knittervention. Casey had dug into her stash and discovered buried treasure: a lone skein of merino wool gifted from Russia.  She selected her pattern (a slouchy hat) and cast on. A little later, she tesluzed that she had kept casting without counting, long since having passed 72 stitches. 

When I made a joke about checking her guage and measuring her head before ripping out the fifty or so extra stitches. So she did, and realized guage was way off. I looked at the pattern, and realized the problem. The pattern called for Aran weight, and her yarn is more like fingering, sport at best. No problem, just add a few repeats to the lace, and recalculate. 

This was a recipe for disaster. Casey was asking me to do math! After a cider!  I think we got it right, but I still have this sinking feeling there was a time bomb ticking away in our numbers that will bite Casey in the bum later when I am not around. 

Today, it is all about the tick, tick, tick. 

Setting Up The Schedule

I have been reviewing the projects for the next four months:

Baby blanket set#1; deadline: September 5th. (Though, you really can't count on babies to mind the calendar. )

Two sets of fingerless mitts for teacher Christmas gifts; deadline: mid-December when school lets out.

Baby blanket set #2; deadline: December 28th.

Optional: Lovers mittens; deadline: none, other than I told my brother that I would, and it is the first time that he has ever requested knitting from me.

Is it just me, or is that a lot of knitting?

Today, it is all about the long list.

The Battle of the Fiber Tools

Knittervention has been the target of a recent invasion. At first, it was just the occasional random encroachment. Then, there was a regular singular  incursion. One was reinforced by two, which was fortified into three. Suddenly there were more crocheters than knitters. 

There is nothing wrong with that. Crocheting has its place: blankets, doilies, maybe a nice scarf. My aunt used to crochet lovely pot holders out of cotton thread, which I now treasure since she died. 

I just think that knitting is generally a superior form of fiber manipulation. 

If this continues, we are going to have to change the name, and Crochet-vent ion just doesn't have the same resonance. 

Today, it is all about the needles vs the hooks. 

Cruising with Confidence

I am feeling pretty good these days about this particular baby set. The car seat blankie is finished (except for the finishing: weaving in the ends.). The larger blankie is halfway finished. I have several weeks before the baby shower. I have plenty of yarn. I have plenty of time. 

This is usually where the ground runs out under my feet. 

Today, it is all about the plenty. 

Save me from the math

I have been making nice progress on Celtic Sage shawl.  I am on the border, with the stockinette background, and was nearly ready to start the center lace motif.  That is when I started to doubt my original math.  I did some counting and measuring, and think that the end result will not be long enough.  So I recalculated, waited a week, then recalculated again, to the same result.  I need to add another half foot of the stockinette before I start the center motif.

So the good news is that I successfully (I hope) dodged a mistake before I made it.  The bad news is I have another 40+ rows before I get to where I thought I was two weeks ago. 

It is worth it, all the math.  The shawl is looking lovely. 

 

Meanwhile, I am still plugging away on the baby blanket.  I double checked the deadlines last night.  My sweetie's cousin is due in September.  The shower is some time in August.  I have several weeks, at least.  Then he dropped another little reminder: his other cousin's wife-to-be is pregnant too, due in December.  I had forgotten about that.  That leaves two to three months to make another set: car seat blankie and baby blankie.  A knitter's work is never done. 

 

Today, it is all about the added deadlines. 

 

P.S.  Before anyone asks: yes, I remembered to check and make sure I would have enough yarn before adding another 80 rows to the pattern.