Three and a Half Mittens
Four days ago, I didn’t have three and a half mittens. I had no mittens. (Ignoring the other two sets waiting for their ends to be woven in. Shhhhhhhh.)
But I did have cold, raw, wind chapped hands, some yarn, and a lot of stress. So I cast on some hand protecting, yarn using, stress conquering mittens.
And a couple hours later I had a mitten. So I cast on the second. And then the third. And then the fourth.
And now I have mittens. They’re complete potato chip knitting.
Growing In Leaps and Bounds
If I didn’t know better I’d say elves were involved, but alas that’s not the case, just me, a lot of reading, and a lot of movies.
I’m now on the third ball (and last) ball of yarn for The Big Orange Blob. I knit through almost all of the second ball last weekend, during a textbook reading marathon, but it has been put on hold until I can chart out the next section. Once I get it charted out, I don’t think the actual knitting will take too long. Maybe I can get it done this week? It’s been awhile since I finished anything big, and it would be nice to have this off the needles.
But charting and finishing The Big Orange Blob, will depend entirely on if I can rip my attention away from Ponycorns and Rainbow Fragments.
I’m just knitting till I run out of yarn, which seems like it’ll be sometime soon, especially if I keep working on it like I have been the past few days. (read: I’ve been doing nothing but knitting this freaking shawl since Friday.)
I’ve managed to add another couple inches to the Not Quite Argyle Jacket, and I’m now almost done with the waist decreases.
And amazingly enough, despite everything else that has been going on, Ghosts & Mirrors has managed to elbow it’s way into a couple knitting hours and has almost doubled in size since the last time you saw it (almost a month ago).
Hopefully the next post will contain an FO. Maybe. Fingers crossed.
Startitis Strikes Again
I thought it was done. I truly thought that casting on four shawls (plus one secret deadline project) in 14 days would be enough to satisfy the beast that is startitis. But it would seem not.
Saturday morning over coffee I started doing the math for a sweater. Why? For sh*ts and giggles apparently. (I still don’t know why I thought this was a good idea.) Then I charted it all out. (Just to see how the shaping would work in pattern of course.) And then I cast on. (Because the cast on number seemed a little high and I wanted to see it in real life.) At this point I was doomed. I cast on, started knitting, and soon Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all gone in a puff of smoke, while I was left standing there with 5 inches of sweater.
If all of this seems a bit haphazard, and not very well thought it. It was. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all. I even made a list.
Things that probably could/should have been better planned/thought out before casting on, which will now come around to bit me in the a$$:
- the needles- one full size women’s cardigan/jacket on 3.00mm needles (that’s tiny folks)- check
- the steek/yarn combo- three steeks in a superwash merino/silk blend- check
- the steeks- a knitter who has never done steeks before- check
- the numbers/design- a knitter/designer who has never successfully completed a sweater before (the Rhinebeck sweater still isn’t finished, and my first sweater doesn’t count, I might have knit a few other sweaters but I obviously wasn’t paying attention)- check
- the yarn- a full size sweater begun with only one ball of each color on hand- check
Rather than freak out about the fact that I really don’t know what’s happening with this sweater, I tried to convince myself it was going to be ok because I didn’t have a sweaters quantity of yarn. I was knitting with the left overs from the mittens, and even though Cascade Heritage Silk has crazy yardage (437 yards per ball), I would eventually run out of yarn before the sweater was finished. At which point I could put the sweater down, back away slowly and focus on other things. At least until I bought more yarn.
(Which turned out to be this afternoon.)
So armed with two more balls of each color, which I’m guessing will get me through the body (no, I haven’t calculated yardage, remember the whole haphazard thing?), I’m giving up all hope of working on other non-deadline projects, and am just along for the ride.
PS. Aren’t steeks pretty!
