Crap.

Well, crap. Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap. Crap! (Which, by the way, is not really the word I would like to say here, but oh well.)

I have slacked on blogging because life has been crazy, but I have been knitting. I am almost finished with Mom's sweater, finally. I was sewing up the first of two side seams today. Everything else is done, I just had to sew up the sides and weave in the 4 ends of the side-seam-sewing yarn and it was ready for a wash and block. (Yeah, I know, I was supposed to seam the side and the sleeve at the same time, but I went ahead and did the sleeve ... I wanted to make sure it would fit Mom.) I was a little over halfway through, up to the center ribbing, and I realized something was NOT. RIGHT. I was only at the center ribbing on the front piece. I still had about an inch and a half to go on the back before I hit the ribbing.

So I'm sitting here, pulling out all the nice little stitches. And here I thought this seam was going so well. Taking forever, but working out nicely. But oh well, I'll just go back, find where I got off track, make sure all the decreases match up properly and work in any ease from one side being stretched out or whatever the problem was. Right?

Not right.

See, when I started looking at the decreases, they actually did match up. They're off by one row. Not a problem. I can deal with one row. But wait, if all the decreases match up, then why is my seam so off ... oh. Oh no. Oh yes, folks, that's right: the back piece has six sets of decreases. (Which is the correct number.) The front piece, on the other hand, only has five.

Crap. (Did I mention that part yet? Well, I'll say it again for good measure. CRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP.)

Counted the decreases on the other front pieces. Again, five. So here's my dilemma. I can go back and add another set of decreases (10 rows) to each one of the front pieces, or I can go back and take out one set of decreases (again, 10 rows) from the back. Technically, I was supposed to decrease 6 times, which would mean the back is the correct piece. But here's the other dilemma. The decreases are completed before the center ribbing, before the textured pattern, before any of the armhole/neckline shaping. You're telling me I have to rip all that out just to add 10 rows? To each piece? No way buddy. That's just not gonna happen. No, what I'm gonna do is cut off the bottom ribbing on the back piece, frog 10 rows and knit the ribbing back on. This may leave me with an extra set of decreases. I'm not sure how many rows I worked before starting the decreases. But I don't care. It's only 2 stitches, it's not really gonna make a difference. It'll also make the whole thing 10 rows shorter, but, hey, that's just a little over an inch. So it'll be an inch shorter. Fortunately, it was a little too long on Mom when she tried it on the other day, anyway. Plus, it's a cotton blend. It'll stretch. That 10 rows will never be missed.

But it means I have to rip out this entire seam, cut off the ribbing, rip out 10 rows, knit the ribbing back and start this seaming process all over again. It's not the end of the world, but it still makes me want to cry. Just a little.

And the kicker? I have no idea how I managed to miscount the decreases on not only one but both front pieces. My own notes clearly say to work a total of 6 sets of decreases. And I distinctly remember thinking that when I was working the fronts. I just counted wrong. In my own defense, I'm not stupid, but I knit those two pieces while my stepfather was in the hospital dying from cancer. I blame my distraction for my sudden inability to count to six.

mitten disaster!

So after taking a break from knitting. It was a shock for me too. I just had no energy and no motivation to pick anything up. I finally picked up and finished the second lillyfield mitten. Well or so I thought. I got to the thumb part when I realized I screwed up.





See the mistake? Can't believe I did that. I had thrown the first mitten in the bottom of the knitting bag and started the second. I didn't think "hmmm I should pull the first out and double check that I'm knitting the right one". Instead I just knit. I pulled the first out because I wanted to try them both on. See what I thought. Make sure sizing was ok. See if my gauge changed between mittens. That sort of thing. :( no need to finish the thumb since who needs two left mittens!

You can also see color dominance at work here. check the two out (neither have been blocked. the plan was to finish and block together). See how on one the white pops more and on the other the red does. Yeah I didn't really mean to do that either. I had just forgotten which one I did. And color dominance doesn't bother me to much as long as its consistent through the single work. With socks or mittens I don't mine if one hand has a different than the other. But I thought I'd point it out. Its not eye popping in your face, but its there.

Now to go cry because I was so excited about finally finishing this project just to learn that I still need to knit a second mitten! ahhhhhh!

no such thing as a quick knit

So now that I'm on the third attempt to knit this quick knit pair of socks... sigh. The third attempt is also being frogged. Instead of just working on my sizing issues I opted for a different pattern. But after completing 5 inches of it I decided it just wasn't right for the yarn or the recipient. So I frogged and started over. Again attempting a different pattern. This time just a plain pattern. Nothing fancy at all. But what fun is it to recieve plain socks? I'm sure they would have been well recieved and loved. But again I'm frogging. I'm not sure if its me or the yarn. The yarn is doing well and I still really like working with it. But it is reluctant to become a pair of fast knit socks.
I've decided to go ahead and send the package without the socks. Its a suprise package (well sorta) and suprise socks (well sorta... I know she reads my blog... heck it her blog too. and she also reads my lj. I mean what sort of bestfriend would she be if she didn't?).

Since trying to complete these socks I've only managed to squeeze in one repeat of clessidra. I'm about half way finished with the leg right now. They are still fun to work on, I guess. I think I'm a little bored with them. Its the back cable that gets me. I dont mind working the other needles. But when I get to the back cable I just stop. The cable isn't hard and I've pretty much memorized the chart. But I dont really like working on that cable. They are looking lovely tho and I can't wait to finish them. Although I'm afraid I'll get second sock syndrome on these.

~Rose

Suprise Sock

So after knitting an entire sock and getting ready to bind off I decide I can't risk it and frog it. After I knit up the foot of the sock (toe up) I was iffy but the sock looked so good I was going to risk it. After screwing up on the leg of the sock several times... I've decided it would be best to just frog the sock and start over. I considered only frogging back to the foot of the sock (or really I could leave the heal turn as well it turned out okay)... and I suppose I'm still considering that a little... but most likely the entire sock will get frogged. It was a fast knit. Knitpicks Essentials on size 2mm needles done toe up. I got one entire sock finished in two days. I'd post a picture but like the title says its a suprise sock... I've already told enough. ok well now I'm off to the frog pond (as they say).

~Rose

pink love

So I was out shopping and decided to stop by Tuesday Mornings. You can (on occasion) run into some really good deals there. Its also right beside a yarn store I wanted to go to, and also a used book store (which had some good knitting books but mostly they were overprices). Anyways so I go and while looking around I happen across some pink cotton yarn. Now normally I dont care for cotton, but this was a cotton rayon blend and I liked it. Its Classic Elite's Image (http://www.yarndex.com/yarn.cfm?yarn_id=570). But there were some small issues with it tonight while trying to wind that hank into a center pull ball.
Full picture story below:
I got out my swift and winder (first time using the swift) and off we went.

a before shot of what the hank looked like after Nathan got finished swinging it around.


an "oh crap" shot of the problem we ran into.


a nice pretty shot of what the ball now looks like. Oh how I love my winder.

I promise to get some process shots of swift and winder next time I pull them out. I have several hanks that need to be done, but Justin showed interest in helping me with it (he always helped before I got the swift)... and so I want to wait for him.

~Rose

Disaster!

So...disaster just struck with my Rogue. (Rogue Project Details located below.)

I was merrily knitting along, almost to the point of reattaching the kangaroo pocket and totally finished with the lower portion of Chart A. I started the upper portion of Chart A and then, a few rows in, I realized something didn't look right. Rather than my cables twisting together, they were snaking back and forth across each other. Uh oh.

So I consulted the chart, and sure enough...I screwed up. 12 rounds down, on row 25, I crossed a cable in the wrong direction. I followed the directions perfectly for the Cable 5 Right symbol. Unfortunately, the symbol in that position on the chart is not the Cable 5 Right symbol. It's the Cable 5 Left symbol. And I never noticed until I got to row 36.

I was forced to make a decision...leave it, frog or try to drop stitches and fix my mistake. I opted for dropping stitches. (No way was I frogging that much work, I was already about to cry as it was, and frogging all that would make me feel sick and want to give up on Rogue, and I want this to be perfect, so I wasn't going to just leave that mistake either.) So I dropped 7 sts 12 rows and started the arduous task of picking them all back up. Finally I was back to where I started. Of course it doesn't look quite as beautiful as it did...the sts are looser and not as even. I evened them out some and it looks better, and I think blocking will help quite a bit. I'm still very disappointed, but I think I can live with it and still be proud of my work.

The only thing is...I made that mistake on both sides. So now I've got to do the whole dropping sts thing again.

Ah well, such is life, I suppose. Life and knitting.


Rogue Project Details

Pattern: Rogue celtic-cabled pullover hoodie
Yarn: Brown Sheep Naturespun Worsted in color #N20, Arctic Moss
Modifications (so far): None, except a smaller hem (5 rows instead of 12) and a slightly smaller gauge, which will hopefully help make the whole sweater fit my small frame better
Start Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Completion Date: TBA

-Pixie