Lessons Learned

Whew. Now that I have finally broken my psychological barrier against working beyond the 2nd pattern repeat (am 2 rows past it - woohoo), I am feeling reflective. Here is what Cozy is teaching me about so far:

1. stitch markers. Sara Jayne suggested using stitch markers for every six stitches, in order to better be able to see where mistakes might be, and to keep up more easily with the pattern. Genius! This has radically simplified matters for me. Not only can I get in a better groove of knowing what comes next, I can see how I've screwed up and exactly where. In particular, I seem to have a thoughtless habit of forgetting to psso when I'm supposed to. With each section marked off, I can easily see the 2 or 3 places I forgot to psso b/c I'll have 7 sts b/t markers instead of 6 sts. When I go through on the purl row, I just fix the mistake. [Note to self: better yet, pay attention and quit making the same &*^& mistake.]
2. lifeline. Sara Jayne and Meredith both reminded me I ought to be using a lifeline. I had every intention of doing so, honestly. But I'm, well, how should I say this, I tend to be, um, a tad lazy. And now is the time to confess something else. Since my last post, I have actually frogged one more time. I don't even remember now what the problem was, but I know what I did about it. I didn't have a lifeline in (was planning to put it in row 8, but I decided to frog after completing row 7), but amazingly I was able to salvage the first four rows (3 garter stitch and then the first pattern row). I went ahead and put a lifeline in at that point, once I got the stitches back on the needle. It goes against my natural inclinations - to actually prepare for potential problems instead of just reacting to them when they happen - but I'm glad I'm doing it.
3. lifelines and stitch markers. Do not thread the lifeline through the 13 stitch markers. I learned this the hard way.
4. toddlers. Toddlers and lace-knitting are an ill-fated combination. No wonder I make stupid mistakes. With silk yarn in my hands, a pattern on the arm of my chair, and two two year-olds throwing books and toys in my lap and shouting, "Read!", it's a little hard to concentrate. I also think they know that when my hands are occupied I am helpless to stop them from smearing blueberry juice on my pants. (hey, at least it's just blueberry juice)
5. bandwagons. I tried to resist. Really, I did. I love my Addis dearly. I don't knit with anything else (except when it comes to dpns). But I'm tired of wishing for sharper tips. Especially as I try to work with this tweedy yarn (which, I have to say, has impressed me thoroughly with its ability to handle four froggings and countless tinkings). So I broke down and did it. Unfortunately, it will be at least a week or two wait. I hope they arrive before I leave on vacation!
6. obsessions. I know I'm obsessive, and especially when it comes to knitting. But I am surprising even myself with the sheer number of times I find myself thinking of the yarn, the pattern, the future finished product, and the knitting itself. I'm also pleasantly surprised by my personal commitment to doing this thing really right, instead of just approximately right.
   
7. distractions. Even my obsession with Cozy doesn't stop me from dreaming about future projects. And I know I am being completely unrealistic with what I think I can accomplish. But I can't stop thinking and planning, and Valley Yarns made things so much more difficult with the arrival of their new catalog yesterday. It included a ridiculously adorable pair of Daddy & Me Cabled Vests (scroll down and look on the right to see them) that I simply MUST MAKE for My Old Man, Little Buddha, and Tiny Dancer to wear at Christmastime. How do I really expect to do that, with my current to-do-list already approaching near-impossibility? Obviously, I have more lessons to learn - about realism, time management, and project management!

I am Sisyphus

I started Cozy again last night (thanks for the encouragement, folks!).

I frogged Cozy again this afternoon.

Knit. Tink. Frog. Repeat.

Total number of times frogged: 3.

The first time, I got 2 pattern repeats in when I realized my edges were wonky. I was doing the selvage wrong - slipping the first stitch (purlwise) but not knitting the last stitch of every row. So I had a chain edge on one side and a bumpy edge on the other. Frogged.

The second time, I got almost 2 pattern repeats in when I somehow screwed up the 7th row. I tinked repeatedly but couldn't get things fixed (this night was otherwise known as the Blueberry Poop night). After a week of setting Cozy aside, I frogged.

The third time, I got to the 7th row of the 1st repeat. Something was awry. I had an extra stitch at the end but couldn't figure out how. I tinked, reworked. Basically, it seemed to be the same problem as the last time. I somehow threw myself off with the two extra stitches I had added for to make the selvages work the way I thought they should (based on advice I got at KH). It should've worked. By every calculation, it worked. It worked on every other row I did. But somehow on row 7 I kept getting messed up by the extra stitch at the beginning and the end (at the end of row 7, when it tells you what to do when you have 5 sts left, I should've had 6 left b/c of the selvage, but I kept having 7).

So I have frogged and am just going to do exactly what the pattern says. I have never not done a selvage (except when knitting in the round, of course) b/c I've never trusted that I can get the edge smooth without doing it. We'll see....

Because I am Sisyphus, I obviously couldn't go to bed without pushing that rock up the hill one more time. So I went ahead and cast on again and started knitting. I made it through row 7 with the exact right number of stitches. Could it possibly be that I won't be frogging this time?

Oh, the upside of all this is that I finally figured out how to artfully tink sl1, k2tog, psso.

Amazing Lace Challenge #4

Challenge #4:

Is your camera feeling abandoned, neglected, and ignored after the poetry challenge? Do you find bad pictures of yourself showing up all over the internet and wonder how they got there? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, Challenge #4 has just the answer. Get ready to take some photos!
Your question: If you bound off your lace RIGHT NOW - what could it be used for?

Your challenge: One photo of your lace in a reasonable approximation of its potential use at this very momeny posted to your blog (or photohosting account) by midnight EDT (UTC -4:00), July 16. Post a comment on this entry with the link to officially enter.
Legal Disclaimer: No lace should actually be harmed in the execution of this challenge. Please exercise due diligence when dealing with many tiny unbound stitches.

If I bound off right now.... Well, I couldn't really "bind off" per se, since I have now frogged Cozy twice and haven't yet restarted. So let's change "bound off" to "gave up." If I gave up right now, my project could be used for....

A cat toy.
Cliche? Or classic?
You decide.

*As per instructions, no lace was actually harmed in the execution of this challenge. The hand of the lace-knitter, however, was scratched when she tried to retrieve her yarn.

Because I didn't have enough to do already.

(Yet another post with no knitting content. I'm knitting, I swear I am. But there's nothing worth showing right now.)

So I started another blog. Bringing me now to three (in addition to this one, I also run a community blog for the campus ministry my husband and I lead). It's a little personal project that I'm inviting others to join if they're interested. It has to do with getting rid of the excess of stuff in my life. It's one of the efforts I'm making towards my 4th birthday goal.

Wanna read more about it? Wanna join me? Check it out: The Seven Things Project.

I had to do it.

I'm sick about it, but I didn't feel I had a choice. I frogged Cozy. Again. One row shy of where I was when I frogged the first time.

The problem was that after all the tinking and counting and re-tinking and trying to figure out exactly where I'd messed up and exactly what to do about it, I became paralyzed. I haven't picked Cozy up since Tuesday of last week because I knew when I did I'd have all this figuring and tinking to do, and I was afraid I'd just mess things up more and make myself more frustrated. I'm sure I could've eventually rectified things. Maybe it was just a matter of unraveling a couple more rows. But the fact that I was paralyzed by the situation meant that that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

So I bit the bullet and frogged. I know that means I basically lost the time I already put in (again) but it will save me time in the long-run since now I'm pretty sure I'll actually start working on it again.

Before.

After.

So my Summer of Selfish Knitting has been somewhat derailed. June did produce one thing for me - the little felted/non-felted purse. Well, that and the dress, but that wasn't selfish knitting, and I'm not going to call this the Summer of Selfish Sewing because I have high hopes of cranking out some toddler clothes at some point. And a purse and headband for my niece, whose birthday was a week-and-a-half ago, so obviously I'm way behind on that. But I digress. I have a list of time-intensive me-projects I really want to have completed by the end of summer, starting with Cozy. I'm way off-schedule (though it was a ridiculously ambitious schedule, and schedule is actually a pretty loose term for me anyway). The last few days I've just been cranking along on the Never Ending Baby Blanket for Baby J, who is due 2 weeks from tomorrow. Once I get it done, I swear this will then be the Summer of Selfish Knitting for real! (Okay, okay, I do still need to seam two @#@$%^ dinosaurs and I do want to make a little kimono sweater and cap for a friend's baby due in September, and another friend did ask me in April to make her a pair of socks, but other than all that. Summer of Selfish Knitting. I swear it.)

The dress

Pardon the hokey posed shots, but here's the dress I made in sewing class. Even though I did the size that matched my measurements (which the teacher took), it turned out too big, so I'll have to take it in (wonder how long it will take me to get to that). You can see in the shot of the back of the dress how the material bunches up when I tie it. The last thing I need is bunched up extra material around my post-twins belly.

It's just a basic linen dress with butterflies embroidered on it and flowers embroidered along the hem, a slit up the left side, and ties in the back. Turns out I'm not as wild about the fabric as I was when I first got it, and I bought too much, so I've got extra lying around. Am kinda sick of it at this point.

I think I'm going to make a fall version out of some sort of chocolate brown or caramel-colored suede-ish material, with 3-4 length sleeves and maybe no ties. And the smaller size. And longer.

But now I know how to sew. In a basic sort of way. Here's hoping I can keep it up....

Amazing Lace Challenge #3: The Poetry Challenge

Your challenge: One poem, written by, for, or about your lace teammate posted to your blog (or photohosting account) by midnight EDT (UTC -4:00), July 2.


Do Not Go Gentle Into That Lace Knit*
(with apologies to Dylan Thomas)

Do not go gentle into that lace knit,
Fine yarn will twist and gnarl at close of day;
Rage, rage against the splitting of the stitch.

Though strong hands on each row will never quit,
Because their fingers work so surely they
Do not go gentle into that lace knit.

Good hands, the last row by, making it fit
Their owner’s body, in whose lap it lay;
Rage, rage against the splitting of the stitch.

Wild hands, which caught and tore the yarn a bit
And move, too late, to fix the little fray,
Do not go gentle into that lace knit.

Slow hands, now numb, in rooms so poorly lit
Will tink and frog the endless night away;
Rage, rage against the splitting of the stitch.

And you, dear Cozy, there in such a snit,
Curse, bless me now with your smooth drape, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that lace knit.
Rage, rage against the splitting of the stitch.


*this poem is based extremely closely on Dylan Thomas' poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, which has always been a favorite of mine. If you haven't read it since high school, do yourself a favor and click on the link above.