two knits of ivory

Most of the time I don't like using patterns. With larger items, like sweaters, it's a crap shoot on sizing. Even worse, I usually take long breaks with sweaters, so I am guaranteed to lose my place. I am meticulous about many, many things. Medical professionals might even add obsessive compulsive, but tracking my knitting progress is not one of these things. When I put a sweater down for a few weeks, I'm not going to remember where I was. I'm just not. And to be honest, I don't want to track my progress so minutely, so carefully that I'll be able to pick up the project a week or two after having last worked on it and be able to pinpoint exactly where I am. That's just not my way of knitting. If you couple this with a nature that thinks backtracking is the root of at least one or two evils, and a general preference for winging it, it makes absolutely no sense for me to knit from patterns. Now this means it took me a lot longer to ramp up to the kno...

After the house cleaning my yarn and knitting underwent this weekend, I think I may have summitted the malaise. (Am I tempting fate by even writing this?) One thing is for sure, Nell made a great point in the comments: "Isn't it amazing how knitting can take you from feeling like a genius to an idiot in a few stitches?" I'm used to feeling like an idiot, therefore this aspect of knitting fits like a favorite pair of old boots. Having something in one's life akin to conquering if your own Mt. Everest, your own Mt. Washington, well, that is fascinating and invigorating. So yes, Nell, it is immoderately amazing. As I had hoped for, I finished my Sunshine and Shadows Shawl (not a triangle!) this weekend. Once I had blocked it out I stood back in awe. It was magic, this beautiful garment, magic. Somehow, this frumpy old hag (me) took two sticks and some string and made this: Am I straining under a pile hyperbole? Well, maybe just a smidge. When you feel so dark for so...

I've been trying to put my finger on the source of the all-encompassing malaise that settled into my life this past spring. It is like a hundred pound albatross. I'm not depressed or even a tad dysphoric. I'm just tired. In an email exchange with fellow knit blogger, Kristin , a phrase came to mind that encapsulates what I'm feeling: high maintenance. Every single activity I engage in, whether it's as banal as tooth brushing, or as fun as reading, anything other than malingering, just seems to be experienced as high maintenance. Once I could define what I feel, my spirits lifted a bit. Sounds strange, but it's true. Once I understand what I'm up against my natural drive to adapt kicked in and one of the first things I found the energy to tackle was my Sunshine and Shadows Shawl...errrr triangle. A week and a half ago I spent a solid half an hour struggling with the beginning of the final lace pattern, redoing the first 20 stitches or so who knows how many ti...

My Sunday morning waking dream was the design of a sweater using the much neglected Cascade 220 Superwash that's nearing a year in my stash. Ya know, cuz the best time to knit a sweater is the cusp of summer, right? :-/ This lovely yarn has been the subject of several design schemes, none of which came to fruition, including a sweater or two. The heathered tones scream out to become the vining twine leaf pattern I used in Project Stole . I'm thinking of just transposing the stole's motif right onto the front and back of a sweater, paired with a mini cabled rib for the neck, arm, and waistbands. But before I even think of designing something as ambitious as that, I've got to find the end of the Sunshine and Shadow Shawl , which has, by nature of my pattern dyslexia morphed into a leaf and medallion triangle. Who knew that the patterns in a book called "Knitting Lace Triangles " were the size of large hankerchiefs and not adult-bodied-sized shawls. Yes, ...

It's taken me near a month to realize that my spring schedule just doesn't give me the time to blog. Where I prefer to post two or three times a week, with each post on a different project, I find I just don't have the mental reserves. I'm going to have to resort to kitchen sink posts if I want to properly catalog what I've been doing and get through my busy season. If it wasn't for some semblance of recording on Ravelry, the details of at least four of my recent projects would be lost to the ether. Herbed Carrots Sock Somewhere on or around May 12th I finished up Herbed Carrots. It's pretty obvious there is more than a little difference in the sock colors. As they were knit from the same skein, it can't be a dye lot issue. As well, the lack of color in one sock over another means I don't have to blame my math or my gauge this time. It's the nature of indie yarns, plain and simple. And I can live with that, as these will be fabulously warm sock...

For over a week now my knitting mojo has been MIA. MIA. MIA. MIA. I think it evaporated once last month's siege of stress came to a close. I have been unable to count stitches for cast ons, for gussets, nor for anything knitting related, really. I have two projects still at the cast on stage after HOURS spent attending to them Friday afternoon and evening, and a small part of Saturday. I have never made this big a mess of casting on and frogging for as long as I can remember. So what was the commotion about? Moebius's or Mobius's, take your pick of the spelling. I thought I would try the free Mobius pattern Cat Bordhi has on her website. Well, it turns out it's only free if you already own a copy of her very unique cast on instructions, known as mobius cast on MCO). Even with a printout of the directions from her Knitty Gritty episode on DYI, I grew very petulant towards Ms. Bordhi and her CO from hell the more I spent time on it. With the hope of rectifying this pat...

Feeling stupid makes me unfathomably angry. I just want to lash out at people. I came up against another mysterious segue in the Firestarter pattern Saturday night and revisiting it today on the KAL makes me want to punch someone in the face, thank you very much. I realize I haven't posted a single picture of this project here, just over at the KAL . This toe left me sleepless one night and angry for even longer. It's so pretty that the anger was quickly forgotten until I finished the gussets and began turning the heel. Living with a learning disability has gotten worse with age. Maybe it's because I have less patience now that I fully understand my limitations. When I was younger I just figured out ways to get around things or maybe it was that more often than not I was blissfully ignorant of my limitations. Now when they are wont to trip me up I feel like a cornered cat. My anger is ferocious. I have yet to find a coping mechanism for it. I began turning the hee...