Treading Water
With my holiday knitting and shopping complete, and my project list down to two items, I've manaaed to make rockin' progress on the Butterfly vest. I'm done with the armhole decreases and approaching the addition of the 4th and 5th steeks - for the front and back neck openings. After arriving home from Christmas #1 in Maine, I was itchin' for some knittin'. I had packed the Jaywalkers for car knitting, but alas, we took the wrong car - I can only knit while in motion in our Trooper, but we were in our little Toyota Echo, and I quickly got nauseated and had to put down the needles.
Once back home with peace and quiet, I picked up Butterfly and got myself settled. I had left her at the front center steek - ready to change colors for the next row. Look at chart, see what color is next, what!? I already have that color on - I used it for the last two rows. OH, SHIT. I knit two entire (200+ stitch rows) with the wrong color. My lazy, procrastinating first response took over, and I said "Screw it, no one will notice" and knit a half row further as is. Then the new process knitter in me (the budding perfectionist?) whispered "But you will know, and it won't look quite right, even to the untrained eye. This is a very lovely vest, and you know you want it to look lovely when you're done, so why not take the time now, because if you go any further, you know you'll just leave it then fret about it in perpetuity from here on out."
To my own amazement, I did just that. All my knitting time last night was spent tinking those now two and a half rows back so I could do it the right way. I tinked, because I am still terrified of full-blown frogging - I cannot ever bring myself to take the needles out and pull, unless I'm pulling all the way to the end and starting from scratch. See last night's work (crappy photo taken by sad, exhausted knitter at night):
I was able to stay up long enough to re-knit the two rows I lost, and one more, so I made a little progress at least. That, and I'm very proud of my own new-found knitting maturity!
On another note, the wheel as been still lately. I just have not had the uninterrupted stretches of time that I need to get spinning. Below is the last thing I spun - some of my hand-dyed from the plain roving that I got with my wheel lesson. I have another 2oz batch of that (but different colors) waiting next to the wheel for me, so I'm hoping to have some time this week.
Once back home with peace and quiet, I picked up Butterfly and got myself settled. I had left her at the front center steek - ready to change colors for the next row. Look at chart, see what color is next, what!? I already have that color on - I used it for the last two rows. OH, SHIT. I knit two entire (200+ stitch rows) with the wrong color. My lazy, procrastinating first response took over, and I said "Screw it, no one will notice" and knit a half row further as is. Then the new process knitter in me (the budding perfectionist?) whispered "But you will know, and it won't look quite right, even to the untrained eye. This is a very lovely vest, and you know you want it to look lovely when you're done, so why not take the time now, because if you go any further, you know you'll just leave it then fret about it in perpetuity from here on out."
To my own amazement, I did just that. All my knitting time last night was spent tinking those now two and a half rows back so I could do it the right way. I tinked, because I am still terrified of full-blown frogging - I cannot ever bring myself to take the needles out and pull, unless I'm pulling all the way to the end and starting from scratch. See last night's work (crappy photo taken by sad, exhausted knitter at night):
I was able to stay up long enough to re-knit the two rows I lost, and one more, so I made a little progress at least. That, and I'm very proud of my own new-found knitting maturity!
On another note, the wheel as been still lately. I just have not had the uninterrupted stretches of time that I need to get spinning. Below is the last thing I spun - some of my hand-dyed from the plain roving that I got with my wheel lesson. I have another 2oz batch of that (but different colors) waiting next to the wheel for me, so I'm hoping to have some time this week.
posted by Pumpkinmama at Monday, December 19, 2005
4 Comments:
What a grown up you're turning into! I always tink, too. Frogging petrifies me. Nice spinning, too.
I used to be an exclusive tinker, too. But now I can frog without fear. But if I were frogging your vest, I would have run a smaller needle through the last row of "good" stitches before frogging. It's a lot easier than tinking and accomplishes the same thing.
Once I started teaching people at my last job to knit, I realized not only did I know a lot, but I also didn't want them to be afraid of knitting, dropping stitches, etc. So my attitude became more cavalier (been using that word a lot lately), and I looked at knitting construction more objectively. Now, when I undo several rows, I pull the needles out and pick up the stitches below before unraveling. 200 stitch rows are kinda long, but you can practice with something smaller, like socks. Or even a swatch. :)
frogging vs. tinking (for me) depends on the project but I agree that the same "to rip or not" internal discussion takes place in my head too.
The handspun is beautiful! Those colors are great together and I like how the plying shows a wide range of colors.
Post a Comment
<< Home