Whoa, tastycakes! It's August?
I am rounding the corner on my Evenstar, recently renamed Sigmund the Sea Monster:
You see what I mean with the name, right? Gawd.
Thanks to the statistics kept by my camera, and Flickr, I can say with complete confidence that I started the knit on border on or around July 31, 2011. And after parannoying for a week that I'd never get it done by the end of August, I passed the halfway mark yesterday evening. That's over 10,000 stitches in eight days (560 rows x an average of 18 stitches). (How is that even possible?!?) Booyah!
Anything can happen between now and August 31. I've had more than a few months without a stitch knit on this, but the craving to block this suckah is driving me onward. It's a primal urge. And if the past nine days has informed me of anything, a weekend or two is all I'll need to finish her up.
With that said, my point in having it done by August 31 may be a moot one. That deadline is for me to be able to enter Sigmund into my local county fair's competition. The thing is, I have come to realize that I personally don't feel this is Best in Show material.
Not Good Enough Reasons:
1. I never should have used a yarn that has such a high certitude for skein to skein variation. I knew the Madtosh Pashmina had a lot of variation, but I thought my "technique" would put this problem to bed. Duh! The technique I've used, which is knitting every other, or every other two, rows with a different skein has provided some measure of repair, but having the occasional yarn overlay must disqualify this project from being a master product.
2. I used inconsistent new yarn joins. This is also due to the yarn. I spit spliced where I was able, but started new yarn with ends that need to be woven in in other places. Second duh! A master product should be 100% consistent in technique.
3. I should have used a more neutral color.
So the sum of my problem is inconsistency. It is a valuable lesson to keep in mind with my future pursuits. With all of this said, what I feel and how the judging actually works, are two separate things. It all depends upon the entries of my fellow knitters, and the proclivities of the judges. So if it's done, I will enter it. Yes, I will. But I am the most important judge and I know I can do better.
So for my next master project I will
1) use a more conventional yarn to insure technique consistency;
2) use a more neutral colorway to help insure the project item is judged for the handiwork and not for the unconventional color choice;
3) use a well established pattern and/or designer to minimize pattern problems; and
4) use a new-to-me pattern because I want the master project to be one that I get right the first time.