Category Archives: knitting

Mental blocks

I think I’m stuck in a bit a creative hole.

Take this scarf for instance. It’s the Guernsey Wrap pattern by Brooklyn Tweed and I started it in February and then kind of abandoned it. I picked it back up again a few weeks ago and finished it all except for just blocking it. It’s been a full week and for some reason I can’t bring myself to get up off my lazy bum, soak it, and pin it out. It just sounds like so much work.

Guernsey wrap Then there’s this sweater. I knitted the front and back pretty quickly and all that’s left is the sleeves, but I feel stuck. Want to know why? Because I have 1.5 balls of yarn left and I’m pretty sure I’m going to run out before I finish, and I don’t want to get super sucked into it and then run out of yarn. Except I haven’t ordered more because I’m not totally sure that I don’t have enough. (I probably don’t.)

Fisherman's Daughter progress

There’s also my dotted Archer that’s been in the works for two weeks and I accidentally effed up one of the yoke seams and for some reason ripping it just seems like too much work for my whiny self. So that’s been on hold too.

So even though I’ve been actively trying to finish existing projects before starting on the shiny new ones, I decided to ignore that and start a new sweater instead. The last time I wore my Aidez I kept thinking how cute it would look in red, and I happened to have the perfect shade of the perfect weight of yarn. I clicked my needles happily for a few hours the last few days, vaguely remembering that there was an error in the way the cables were written but not totally able to recall what it was. I’m sure you can spot the issue in the photo.

Aidez #2 progress

Anyway, I thought about attempting the ladder-y thing to fix just the cable direction but then I decided that the ribbing is too loose and was always going to bother me and I might as well start over now. So yeah, riiiiiip.

After this, there will be finishing of all the projects. Promise.

(Realistically though, that’s probably all going out the window in a few days when my Christmas knitting yarn arrives..)

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Fair Isle elves

Whale sweater progress

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Whale sweater progress

Whale sweater progress
ravelry page // pattern: Sweet and Seamless Sweater // yarn: LB fisherman’s wool & Knit Picks WotA 

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I started knitting bigger projects was that if I catch a mistake, even if it’s on row 3 and I’m all the way at row 57, I should always rip and fix it. Unless you can fix without ripping, of course. Some people can tell themselves that they love it for its imperfections, or that they won’t notice the error. I can’t do that; I always notice.

The thing with fair isle knitting is that even if you’re doing it totally right, it looks absolutely awful. The entire time I’ve worked on this sweater, I’ve had this ongoing argument with myself over whether or not I need to rip and start over. Maybe I’m pulling too hard. This part’s uneven. Why are these stitches leaning that way? It’s not even comforting to watch Youtube videos of the experts or to look at other people’s progress photos because I always seem to be able to convince myself that they’re knitting gods and I suck.

And yet inevitably I bind off, toss it in some warm water for a soak, and when it dries it’s lovely and even and I feel silly for ever doubting myself.

The moral of the story is that I need to photograph all my fair isle projects while they’re in progress so that when I start a new one, I can look back and see that the gorgeous sweater I finished and blocked used to look like crap too.

Or that wet yarn attracts small magical fair isle elves that unravel and re-knit the whole thing evenly whilst I sleep.

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Kittens

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Last week I was oggling some Kim Hargreaves patterns and decided that I needed to own a mohair sweater. One of those lofty ones that look like clouds.

So I went looking at yarns and decided that as much as I enjoyed the idea of buying a ton of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, my sad and abused bank account should probably not be subjected to that right now. But then I found some mohair yarn on ebay and all was well. Considering it’s 50% synthetic, it’s fairly soft. If the Rowan were knitting with kittens, this would be like knitting with a feral cat. Whose owner decided to dye its fur once or twice for fun.

Yes.

Anyway, so far the front and back are done, and I’m slightly stuck on the sleeves. I also can’t decide whether I like it with the stockinette facing out or inside out better. Hmm.

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