Knitting Funk and Needing Feedback

Maelstrom Border with Beads
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Well, crap, nothing is going right, at least in my warped perception of my knitting progress these days. I feel like I wasted the weekend and am not happy with my progress on the Maelstrom border.

So, look at how it looked when I was finished with one repeat. I admit that it looks marginally better now that I have four, but I have stopped working on it. I am very worried that I have too many beads in there. I think I may decide to rip out what I have done and try again, omitting the second row of beads on the edge. I think they make the shawl too heavy and “crunchy.” I like the little clusters in the center and the row of beads along the edge of the main part. And I think the outer row MIGHT be better with just a bead at the top of every point. I would love some feedback on this. What do you think? I was really hoping I’d see Jody when she was here so I could ask her, too, but so far, that hasn’t happened (no doubt she is hanging with her family).

Besides not liking how it is coming out, I had trouble getting the beads where I wanted them in the first place, and had to start again a couple of times. And I would lose count in the border, because the rows are too short to use tape to mark them, and my really nice electronic row counter has broken. I guess I will look for my “kacha kacha” old one and that will relieve me of the frustration of using pencil marks. Wow, I sound crochety.

And furthermore, even easy things I am working on are bugging me. I am taking a break from Itchy Shalom because it itches and is hot. Soon as it cools off, I will get back to that one and the alpaca sweater from this spring (while it is not cool, at least it rained last night). I started the Wrap Me Up shawl that I am supposed to be doing a Knitalong of, only I started and didn’t tell anyone. I am doing it because I need something easy that isn’t as fussy as all the beads, to rest my hands and eyes. So, I manage to read the instructions wrong multiple times, and had the first squares backward, so I had to re-do them. Then I attached the second unit at the wrong place. Yadda yadda. At one point, I was doing linen stitch wrong. I mean, come on, I have made entire garments using that, and designed a scarf in that stitch! I must say, it’s pretty in its Noro glory. Photo next time!

I must just be in a knitting funk. Shoot, you know it’s bad when your favorite female political personage Schaeffer yarn is the one named for your least favorite candidate, like, ever, by golly. I am just not in the mood for bright, shiny colors at the moment.

I can’t even get happy about my darned socks (which, in fact, are not darned at all, since they aren’t done!). It has taken me way longer than I figured it would to get the toes done (thanks to not much out-of-the-house knitting time). I think, though, that I may finish during Beccano’s guitar lesson today. These socks seem to have taken forever, but I know it’s just because I have been focused on other projects all this time. I have purposely chosen a simple pattern in a very cheerful yarn for the next pair—it’s Lang Jawoll Aktion in a very happy self-striping color with a lot of blue in it. And it comes with reinforcing yarn for the heels and toes! I will make something more complex after that.

I hope tomorrow at the yarn shop I will get more inspired. I will have a shopping trip before that, so I should feel good.

Let me know if you think all the beads on the shawl look good, or if you think they are just too much. Yes, you, non-commenters. Please chime in if you can!

That Looks Delicious!

Maelstrom on Two Needles
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Hey, what's that photo? Is it a pizza? A dried dahlia flower? Some lovely coral? No, that delicious-looking item is Maelstrom, nearly finished with the main body. If you look at the original, you might even see the beads, which are on the edges, but I doubt it. They are subtle. I only got 2.5 rows finished yesterday, thanks to wedding stuff I had to do, but hey, those are 800 stitch rows by now, so that took some knitting! I think the green beads are going to look nice gracing the last half of the last repeat. And then the border will have more beads (but not too many; I am trying to be tasteful).

I still have no clue how big this thing's going to get. I am concerned it won't be a big enough shawl. On the other hand, I mostly drape my shawls along the stairwell, anyway, so it has a life as a decorative object ahead of it, if nothing else. I'd hoped it would be a lap afghan, but I don't think so...I just have to be patient, since it looks like it will be a while before I find out! Now that I am beading, I can't work on it in the car or outside of the house (I think I can work on it at Chicks with Sticks tomorrow, though).

That means, maybe the Striped Celebratory Chevron socks will get bigger today, due to a bunch of meetings tonight! Poor socks. At least I am past the heel on them, so the end is in sight.

Hey, and guess what came in the mail yesterday? Why, YARN! What a surprise! I had to order the "Wrap Me Up" shawl pattern from Jimmy Beans Wool, and well, you can't just order a pattern, for goodness sake! So, two of those limited edition Lorna's Laces colors showed up (Gone Fishin' and Amy's Vintage Office), plus one sock's worth of Kafe Fassett Regia. WHY did I forget I would need two? Duh. And a Colinette Jitterbug, just for fun, in a very pinky/purple Wine Coulis colorway (depicted). I have GOT to stop buying sock yarn. Especially if I am going to keep committing to making blankets.

Yes, I have the OpArt baby blanket and the Wrap Me Up shawl in line to make. Those are big items that will distract me from shawls. Plus, it is almost cool enough to finish the orange alpaca sweater!

I must go be a mom now, and take one son to guitar lessons and attend Senior Parent Night for the other.

Maelstrom as Beret and Good News

Maelstrom as Beret
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I was wrong when I said I could not find a way to photograph Maelstrom. Here is serves as a jaunty beret. Yes, I am wearing the same shirt as I had on in the previous post. Hey, it is what I wore for a couple of hours each day after I got home from all my "activities." When not serving as a beret, Maelstrom can also serve as a holder for its ball of yarn, too. Handy, very handy.

I have been working diligently, and am now over halfway through the second of three passes through Chart B. I will be interested to see how much yarn I have left at the end of this chart. If I still have some left, there is hope that I can do the border in the original yarn using the second skein. Of course, that last pass through Chart B will have lots of stitches on it, so it remains to be seen whether I will need to get Ray to make me some new border yarn or not. I am also curious as to what size this product will end up being. Will it be a table cloth? A shawl? A lap blanket? I have no clue, since it is really curling up.

I am just about to the heel on the socks, too, after plowing through a mistake made during the Debate Parent meeting (got all nerved out by another participant). We'll see how far I get this afternoon and evening at Chicks with Sticks and choir. I have been touched at how many people asked where I was last Wednesday--the Big Announcement that I was at the high school open house didn't get very far, apparently!

Well, this is all I have time for on break, so it's back to the Wonderful World of Technical Editing. Ooh, and in case you haven't heard, my fiance Lee got a job offer, finally. At a company that makes mostly white computers, trendy phones and things that play music. It's a contract, since they froze the position he has interviewed endlessly for, but there's hope it will turn into that position eventually! Now we can really get moving on that wedding planning!

Lots of Knitting, Not Much to Show

Encore Sock Scarf
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I knitted tons this weekend, but most of it was on the Maelstrom shawl, and well, it really doesn't look too different from before the weekend started. I know I made progress, though, because I finished the first repeat of the main pattern and got well into the second repeat. And of course, it was quite appropriate to be working on the hurricane-shaped shawl while waiting for the hurricane to come. Of course, I patiently waited in the LYS, while all we got was wind, while our friends and relations in Houston and parts south had a much worse experience (as well as our Ohio friends!). I have no photo of Maelstrom, because I can't really get an angle that looks like something nice. Sadly, it rather resembles a giant deposit of doggie doo doo, especially the wrong side. Nice image, I know, but it will be a lovely muted shawl when it's done!

I did start the thing you see illustrated, which I talked about in the last entry (so go take a nap if you find this repetitive--I want to say more about it). What is it? Well, certainly not something that takes all my knitterly intellectual powers, that's for sure. It's a K1P1 shawl of 40 stitches in width, made from the new-ish Plymouth Encore Sock yarn. It's DK weight, so not really my idea of fun sock material, but I was intrigued with the mottled effect and the self striping aspect. To be honest, what brought this on was that in the past couple of days I had recommended this kind of scarf to two knitters wanting to branch out from plain garter stitch scarves. In addition to the one I mentioned on Saturday, another one wanted to use self-striping sock yarn for a scarf, and I told her how a stockinette one would curl up. However, doing a K1P1 ribbing makes a fabric that quite resembles stockinette on both sides, resulting in a flat scarf that has no "wrong" side. This is just a simpler version of that Brooklyn Tweed scarf everyone was making last year.The nice thing about this DK weight yarn is you don't need as many stitches to get scarf width, and it will go faster. Still, such a thing in self-striping sock yarn sure would be pretty. I think you might need two skeins, though, and often you can't find two of the same 400-yard skeins.

Well, that's enough on a very simple thing. It just looked like it would make a nice gift. Especially with a matching hat!

And speaking of sock yarn, I did work on the Stripey Celebratory Chevron socks this weekend, too. Still loving the bamboo blend yarn and the pattern. I could make this pattern over and over, and am finally not putting errant YOs as much as I was.

On to the rest of the week. I hope all the weather is calm, wherever you are in this big ole world.

Knitting through Frustration

Shalom Cardigan
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I had a lot of frustrations over the weekend, so was glad to have my knitting. Had some difficulties on the band bus (I think my bus kids didn't do anything awful, but had to deal with a pissy bus driver), the power went off for hours on Saturday, the cable went off later so I ended up missing BOTH the Gators and the Longhorns play football, and on Sunday I scheduled a rehearsal for the wrong time, so I missed most of the Cowboy game! Gee. Not my weekend for football. I mainly love football because I get a lot of knitting done when it is on, you see!

And, as you can see, a lot of knitting was done on Shalom. It is somewhat more attractive than it appears to be in the photo. The super bulky yarn makes for a thick fabric, so I think it will be like one of those vests you can wear for warmth, not just decoration. Looking at how the arms are done (which is an interesting way, I think--creates cap sleeves), I am not sure if I will be able to add sleeves to it or not. My other alternative is to lengthen it. I see by the thousands of Lucky Magazines that have come to my house in the last few weeks (I got a free subscription when I bought some shoes online, and they sent the first three months one per week) , long sweater vests are in fashion. We'll see what I think when I finish knitting skein #3, which I am about to start on as soon as I am not working.

I had to go to the Big Fancy LYS south of the river to buy a new, longer size 8 needle for when I was working on the last part of the yoke. Actually, the main body section barely fits on those needles, and with such sturdy yarn, stitches do try to pop off. They don't squish up like a wool would. And, heh heh, since I was at a yarn shop with different stuff from the usual yarn shop, I had to get some sock yarn. I completed my "Panda" collection by getting two balls each of Panda Soy and Panda Wool. I mainly got the Panda Wool because Beccano loved the colors. He wants a hacky sack ball made from it. I don't know if I can part with it (and yes, the photo is blurry, oops).

I did a bit of work on the Maelstrom on Saturday, but when I was wandering around town doing fun stuff, I mostly worked on the Stripey Chevrons socks. It seems like I didn't spend all that much time on them, but I did make some progress. It's a simple pattern but I keep YO-in in the wrong places. Grr, I hate it when I do that!

Other than the usual fun with the usual folks at the usual yarn shop Saturday morning, there's not much other knitting news to report. I'll check in with you later in the week, I am sure.