Third Time Charmed

My third attempt at the Cozy Cowl was indeed the last.  Success!  Hurray for math!  (Shhh, don't tell sister Anna Maria, my freshman algebra teacher.  I would hate to think that she was right about something.)  I am now the proud displayer of a soft and woolie cowl, guaranteed to keep my head warm in the bitterest of Indiana winters.

I was uncharacteristically monogamous to the cowl.  Maybe it was the Indiana that seems to get colder and longer every year.  Maybe it is just where my mind is these days.  So many things going on, so little space in the RAM of my brain to allocate between them.  Knitting seems to get the brain power that is leftover after everything else in my life, limiting the level of difficulty these days.

We are still moving the last of the random things in my mom's basement.  Some  most of the last random items have literally been in her basement for years.  I am finding yarn and projects that I forgot I had.  Some have been the source of new inspiration, some have been more along the  "what was I thinking?" lines.

I am trying to approach the large, neglected stack of WIP's in a positive manner.  I don't want to beat myself up about a single sock that I have been working on for years.  I have decided to take them one at a time.  Pick up and evaluate it.  Do I still like the yarn?  Do I still like the pattern?  Are the yarn and pattern working?  If not, I have given myself permission to frog without guilt.  Give away the yarn, if I don't like it.  Put it back in the stash if I do.

I started with a single pre-heel sock.  I had remembered the pattern as being too fiddly, and opened the bag with trepidation.  To my surprise, I was able to immediately figure out where I was in the pattern repeat, and I did still like the pattern.  I will see if the other rows are too fiddly, but in the meantime, it is in my briefcase for before-court knitting.  One neglected WIP back in progress, way too many more to go.

And, I started something new.

Today, it is all about the new and the old.  

Called It

I did run out of yarn before it was wide enough to fit around my head.  It was looking close, and I really waited until the last row, but it was definitely too narrow.

So I ripped out again, and recalculated the new width, to have the proper length.  Thank God my six grader was there, because rather than just continuing to do trial and error, he suggested the formula.  Since I had the total area that the yarn would create in that needle size, all I had to do was find the new width and length that would equal the same area.  Brilliant!!

So, I am still working on the same cowl, for the third (and hopefully, final) time.

Today, it is a question of whether I am smarter than a sixth grader.

I May Have Adult Onset Knitting ADD

I have had a lot of things going on in my life, and I think that it has pushed me into Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder, at least as far as knitting is concerned.  I have found myself gravitating towards simple knitting.  My teacher mitts, placemats, that sort of thing.  Whenever I come to a part when I actually have to think about it, I find myself sticking it down a little deeper in the knitting bag and ignoring it.

So what is a knitter to do?

Start something new, of course.  In my defense, this is some of the pretty yarn that I bought when my yarn store closed.  (Sniff, yes, I am still in mourning over it.)

I didn't even put this lone hank in the yarn cabinet.  It has spend the last few months snuggled into the knitting bag, tantalizing me.  Begging to be turned into something soft and warm.

I only have one skein, so I really have to be creative.  I found a pretty cowl that called for two strands of worsted weight.  My boucle was aran, so I paired it with an ivory DK, and I figured that about equaled out.

Of course, a wise knitter would have done a swatch, and I have proven once again that decades of knitting experience means nothing when there is a new project tempting you.

Six inches later, I finally had to admit that the fabric was too dense, and was probably not wide enough.

But, with the aforementioned decades of experience, I was smart enough to rip out and start over.  I swatched four different needle sizes, and calculated the gauge for the desired width.  Then completely restarted.

Now that I am nine inches into it again, I am starting to get a little concerned that I will not have enough yarn to get all the way around my head.  So, it is entirely possible that I will have to rip the whole thing out again, and shave a few stitches off the sides.

It is a good thing that I am a process knitter.  And hopefully soon I will be able to tackle complicated knitting again, like short rows and separating a sweater for sleeves, and things like that.

Today it is all about the knitting and the reknitting, and possibly rereknitting.    

Christmas Eve Plans

My Grandmother always said that whatever a person does on Christmas Eve, they will be doing that all the following year.  So she always planned it so that she would not have to do any laundry or cleaning on Christmas Eve.  In the spirit of my Grandmother, I have some fun things planned for tomorrow.  Cards with the kids, movie night, grilling burgers (less cooking for me), that sort of thing.

The knitting related activity is that I am going to go through all of my knitting projects in progress.  it has been so many months focusing on the baby blanket and teacher mitts, I don't even remember what it in the knitting bag anymore.  Some of it has been in storage for a couple months, since the move.

For this week, I have just been working on a random charity sock.  The first was nearly done, and I was able to decrease my toe and cast off last night.  As I live in perpetual fear of the Second Sock Syndrome, I dutifully cast on for the second sock.   Toddler socks are charmingly small, so I am already to the heel.  Then I realize, I didn't remember how to short row a heel anymore.  I admit that I have been rather lace-obsessed in recent years, but I have made nearly a dozen socks in my lifetime.  That is two dozen heels, all but the first four would have been short row.  How have I forgotten something so basic?  I guess I will be looking that up tomorrow too.

Today, it is all about the forgetfulness.

So, now what?

As usual, I significantly overestimated the time I would have to knit while on my trip.  While I did knit on the plane, and intermittently throughout the day, the mitts were the only thing that I knit.  All of the other things stayed in my suitcase the entire time.

Mitt update:  Three pairs of mitts completed, wrapped, and sent with my child this morning.  Well, only two were delivered today.  The mitts for my 4th grader are waiting on the table.  He had a fever yesterday and today, so no school.  if I had known, that, I would have waited on those and worked on other mitts.  I know my oldest was a little disappointed that I was only able to complete mitts for two of his teachers (out of six), but it is a small school, so I can catch those teachers next year, or the year after.  I DID forget to get a picture of the mitts before they left my hands.  (Face slap!  What am I, a rookie?)

This morning, I was packing my bag for work, and I didn't know what knitting to bring.  I have been so focused on the baby blanket and mitts for months, I need to decide what knitting slides up to the front of the queue next.  I grabbed a couple things, but I didn't really have time to put some thought into it.  This weekend, I will really go through the stack of WIP's.  I need to evaluate.  Am I stuck?  What is the barrier?  Can I get past the barrier? Do I still love the project?  Do I just need more knitting time in my life?  Well, I can't do anything about the last one, but the new year is a good time to reassess.  Life is too short and my time too precious to continue knitting on something that I hate just because I started it.

Today, it is all about the WIP diving.

TSA: DPN's are not weapons

 I have an unexpected plane trip coming up this week.  The details are not important, but I am looking forward to a few days of warmer weather, and all of those knitting opportunities that air travel provides.

Some people fuss over what shoes to pack, or clothes.  I fuss over knitting.  And books.  And yes, I always overpack.  I have knitting stashed in my suitcase, in my carryon, and in my purse.  I have mindless knitting.  I have complex lace knitting.  I have dark yarn.  I have light yarn.  I have a couple balls of yarn with extra needles.

But there are so many things that can go wrong, and I don't want to be caught with nothing to knit, right?  A bag could be stolen.  TSA could decide that metal DPN's are dangerous weapons.  Yarn could break.  I could have pattern issues.  I could get bored with one project and want to work on something different.  

Naturally, the teacher mitts are at the top of the list.  Progress so far:  one pair finished;  one pair 5/6 finished, one pair barely started, three balls of yarn in the queue.  Then I am bringing a light pink lace shawl, a black lace shawl, and my placemats (with a couple spare balls for more placemats).  Seven projects in all.  That isn't excessive for five days, is it?

This actually isn't as crazy as it sounds.   There is not a local yarn store within a thirty mile radius.  Apparently, people don't generally travel to Nevada to knit or buy yarn.

Today, it is all about the fiber overpacking.    

New school, new teachers, more mitts

Christmas time brings the new batch of Christmas teacher mitts to knit.  In addition to the baby blanket for Mandy.  (I really need to speak to my friends about having a baby around Christmas, it really puts a crunch for holiday knitting.)

Mandy is due next week.  My goal was to finish her blanket before Thanksgiving.  I did.  Though late Wednesday night hardly counts, since I wasn't able to give it to her before close of business that day.  I had court with her Wednesday, and the baby had not yet arrived.  She made no similar promises for Monday, though I am optimistic, because I haven't given her the blanket yet.  A baby can't be born before the blanket is delivered, right?

With the blanket done, I can focus on Christmas Teacher Mitts.  With the move over the summer, my kids started a new school.  And for my oldest, sixth grade meant he started in the junior/senior high school, with six different teachers.  I told him to select one or two of his favorite teachers, and to find out their favorite colors.  He gave me three, then a day later, gave me all six, with favorite colors and in order of preference.  That is my annoyingly thorough child for you.

So, as of today, the mitt progress stands so far:  one pair finished, one pair half finished, yarn selected for five more, and the goal to finish as many as possible.  Each pair takes 8 to 12 hours of knitting, 18 days to go. . . I am doomed.

Today, it is all about the holiday deadlines.