Copping to it, or Too Stressed To Knit

So, when I first set out on this “one FO a week” idea, I knew there would be bumps, and that I probably wouldn’t stick to it very well. This was part of the reason why I started it as early in the fall as I did, and set the goal so high. The other reason is that, while I knew I was perfectly capable of knitting a hat/pair of gloves a week and could spread it out, taking plenty of time and not getting sick of knitting as I went along. Slow and steady wins the race.

Now if only my brain hadn’t gotten in the way. Remember those few posts about the hats a couple weeks ago? Yeah…trying to knit a hat a day…. I’m a moron. Though I did actually get one more out of the week (see below) things went south after that. I picked up some absolutely gorgeous yarn from a LYS and set to knitting myself An Unoriginal Hat only to realize as I neared the end of my first of 2 skeins, that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn, I was okay with this (this is why you can always go back for more, the store wasn’t going to shut down over night) until I realized one more problem…if I completed the pattern as planned…I was going to end up with a hat for Andre the Giant.

I didn't think to add something in for scale, but trust me....that's only the first of two repeats, not to mention the decreases...I'd have wound up with a skull cap for Andre..or maybe one of the statues they have littered around the city. Trust me.

Now, when I realize I’ve made a huge gaff like this, and I do it a lot, I tend to get somewhat despondent and lose interest in knitting for a while, eventually I come back to it, rip back the yarn and suffer through it. But the amount of time it takes is generally proportional to how frustrated I am with knitting in general at that time, how much time I’ve put in on the project, and how traumatic it was to realize I’d have to rip back the whole thing. For example, when I first moved to the UK I was working on a sweater, I took most of my sadness and homesickness from the time and used knitting as an outlet…until I realized I was going to have to rip out the ENTIRE sleeve I’d just knit (mostly while being utterly depressed)…that particular sleeve is still waiting to be undone 14 months later. Honestly…it may be there for another 14 months before I can bring myself to rip out all those freaking cables. (Seriously…that chart was a monster)

Okay, coming back from the tangent, the combination of overkill on the knitting and the realization of a necessary rip proved to be a bit much, so I took some time off, then started my intended project for the next week- a pair of Urban Necessity fingerless gloves/mittens for my brother Harry. Harry is an artist specializing in metalwork, so he spends most of is time working in his shop north of Denver….i don’t know if any of you have ever been to Denver, but it gets freaking cold in the winter, even if you ARE standing next to a forge. So the idea was to knit a thin pair of gloves he could wear under the shop gloves he sometimes wears. I chose the urban necessity pattern because they were fingerless gloves that still had fingers (just not closed) instead of stopping before that, like the Evangeline pattern (one of my all-time favourites). Just one problem with them – the cuff is K1P1 ribbing...my own personal form of knitting hell. Two-by-two ribbing I can just about tolerate, but one-by-one? Don’t even speak to me about it…I loath it. Plus, given that I’d decided I needed to knit up the XL size, there was A LOT of it to do.

Now here’s where I’ll cop to it…the combination of the K1P1 ribbing, and my own stressed out state due to academia made knitting an impossibility. Now seriously, anyone who knows me will know how much of a wreck I was, when I say that for the past two weeks I have been too stressed to knit. To knit! My ultimate stress reliever! So my dear readers (all 4 of you, Hi Mom) I’ll cop to it – I fell off the wagon and have barely knit a stitch. It’s like I’ve been in a coma….and I am now, unsurprisingly, a bit behind on my Christmas knitting.

However, I am happy to say that I now have a Masters Degree!!!!, (BOOYAH!) and am no longer Too Stressed To Knit. So I’m clambering back on that wagon, and working on catching up. The entry is getting rather long, so I’ll end it here and catch up with the rest tomorrow! Suffice to say I’m knitting again…or at least I was until it all went wrong.

Project Profile: Dad’s Black Cap (XL)

Yarn: Blue Sky Aplacas - Bulky (Black, don't remember the color #)

Details: knit to be massive on size 13 dpns

Pattern: Modified "Turn A Square" by Jared Flood

I've owed my dad a knit object for years, but I'd never gotten around to it. BAD DAUGHTER, VERY BAD DAUGHTER. So this year I finally did. The first "Turn-a-Square" hat I made was intended for him before I realized that a) it was way too light and b) it was probably too small. My Dad's got a big noggin, so accordingly, this hat is massive...honestly, i dunno that it's going to fit him, but if it doesn't it's only a matter of a few hours to rip and re-knit the thing, so no problem there.

Mr. Teddy Models....

KBC - Week 4 - Toxic Tuesday

Yesterday afternoon, after living here for over a year, I *finally* managed to get to Loop, one of London's most well known knitting shops. The store is located in Angel,whereas I live in the western portion of the city so I don't find myself in the neighborhood very often. Thankfully, I had a couple of hours to kill after attending London's most USELESS career fair ever, so I was able to swing by. The place is delightful, and positively spacious for a downtown knitting store. I have memories of stores in New York City that were so small you could hardly call it a coffin let alone a store. Loop was well lit, well stocked and staffed by incredibly friendly and helpful people. The place was truly delightful. Accordingly....I wound up with quite a good haul of yarn, most of which you'll see in the next few days. In particular, I stumbled upon a skein of Colinette Point 5, in them most intense neon pink and purple combination you've ever seen. Seriously, I think I may have irrevocably irradiated a large portion of my ovaries just by looking at it. Naturally, this meant it was a perfect yarn for my Godmother, Maureen.

Maureen is known for her flamboyant personality and appearance, she and my mother met in Lamaze during their first pregnancies way back when and they've been close ever since. When I was younger I made a habit of sending her small pots of pink and purple hair dye, which she uses for dying just a touch of her otherwise wonderful silver hair. Sadly I can't find any photos of her from my sister's wedding, but she was a queen in red and purple. Maureen does flamboyant like no one else, particularly the intense pinks and purples. This toxic purple yarn was meant for her!

This was the result....I only hope my future children don't have 3 heads because of it....

Project Profile: Maureen's Toxic Pink Hat
Pattern: No pattern, just Co 48 stitches, knit 6 inches then decrease.
Yarn: Colinette Point 5 in Alizarine (119)
Details: Size US 15 ( 10 mm) dpns

KBC - Week 4 - The Mad Hatter and a Monday

After finishing up last week's project I felt that I should do something that would take more time, the socks knit up so quickly that I finished the first in 24 hours, and then took the remaining 5 days to finish the second one. Second Sock Syndrome to the max, not in terms of actual times but if you look at the ratios...wow, that was bad. In light of that, I figured better to go for a 'slow and steady wins the race'-type-project and decided on finally getting around to making a hat for my dad. I've owed him one for years, since the very start of my knitting endeavors, but I'd always found the idea rather boring, and got distracted so I hadn't gotten around to knitting it....not a very nice daughter am I? But now, the time was at hand! I had soft yarn, I had free time, I had a pattern I liked....

Project Profile: Dad's Christmas Hat (Part 1)
Pattern: Turn-a-Square by Jared Flood
Yarn: Mirasol Miski Colorway 115 (black) 1.25 skeins
Mirasol Miski Colorway 118 (gray) 0.25 skeins
Details: US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) DPNS

The hat worked out well, I made it slightly longer, as my Dad's got a big noggin, but I changed up the stripes a bit. At first I was worried that I wouldn't have enough gray to do 2 rows of it for every 3 of the black, so I did a Fibonacci sequence instead with the black, 3, 5, 8 and 13. You can't quite see the last gray stripe at the top, but it's there. In retrospect i probably had enough to do the striping as the pattern specified, but I like how this came out anyways. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be my Dad's cup of tea and it's a bit thin for his purposes. If he's wearing a hat, it means that the armageddon of snow storms has hit New York City (which it does a couple times a year) so the thinner Miski yarn just isn't going to be warm enough. So right now, the hat is homeless, but will be fostered on my head, as it's perfect for London in October!




HOWEVER, what did leave me utterly gobsmacked about this project was how fast it was completed - I did this in an evening...less than 5 hours. Insane. So then it got me thinking...what if my project for this week was more than one? How hard could it be to knit a hat a day?

KBC - Week 2 - A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Huzzah! I actually finished this weeks project last night, but opted to go to bed instead of blogging about it. Things are swimming along here merrily, class starts on the 20th and I'm spending the time between them plotting PhD and Law school applications. Wish me luck! Also on the list is getting my flat under control, I'm pretty sure the clothes monster underneath my bed not only is capable of speaking to me at this point, but has named itself as well. Hermintrude whispers to me while i'm trying to go to bed in her screechy little voice "CLEEAAAAAN MEEEE"! Something dire is getting done this week.

BUT, in the meantime, have some more knitting:


Project Profile: The Turn-A-Square Watch Cap.
Pattern: Squared Away Watch Cap and Turn-A-Square
Yarn: 1.5 skeins of Mirasol- Miski in shade 118 (123 yds)
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) DPNS

When I started out with this project, I had planned on using the Squared Away Watch Cap (Ravelry Link) from Crystal Palace Yarns. But once I got further into the pattern I realized I didn't want it to be quite so long as the watch cap, and I wasn't sure about the look of the decreases. After a bit of searching, I settled on Jared Flood's Turn-A-Square (Ravelry Link) cap instead. I like the raglan decrease, and the general neatness of the pattern. Naturally, as this pattern is stocking stitch and i'd done the 2x2 rib as proscribed in the Watch Cap, I was a bit worried, but once I got the hang of it (read: stop trying to be smart and figure out if I should be purling or knitting the decreases and just knit them all) I really think it came out well. This is definitely a pattern I'll be using again.