The sister-in-law is moved out and in their rental for the next 6 months. For those of you who know her and her family and what they can accumulate even when most of their stuff burned, you know what a feat that was. I helped her move yesterday and everything was moved yesterday to the amazement of... well, everyone except me. I just shrugged and said "You wanted everything out so everything was out." I was a woman with a mission until about 3:15 driving home after the 2nd load of mine (3rd or 4th of S-i-l's), called Ph-i-l and said "if it's ok with you I'm going home. I'm feeling tired." And I crashed on the couch until Hubby came home. I didn't even knit much yesterday, due to lack of enthusiasm and Hubby and I needing to practice the one-night-only play we are in Saturday night. We did practice and we are feeling o.k. about it. Pretty much.
As you can see from above I am making some slow progress on Marilyn's socks and they are turning out lovely. The colors are adorable and I can't wait for her to see them. I'm also working on a hat for one of Hubby's friends who I had also knitted a Harry Potter Slytherin scarf for (she's a very entertaining person) but I'm not posting that one yet. I think it's too small but it knitted together so lovely I can't bear to frog it. I'm going to let her try it on and just buy more yarn to make another if it doesn't fit. But it's a definite lesson to me on gauge at the beginning of the stockinette stitch is not necessarily the same 3 inches later. It started 3.5 st./1" and ended up 4 st/1". I measured it and it might actually be too small for me and I have a small head. it's so hard to try those things on while they are still on the needles so I am trying to finish it to get the verdict. Hopefully it still fits her... one can always hope.
The sweater still isn't started. I read the pattern (in UK instructions so that was a little interesting) and had a small freak out because of the different pieces, etc. to knit so I put it down and left it alone for a while. I'm feeling a little better about it. All it is is ribbing at the bottom, cuffs, and neck and plain stockinette the rest of the way so what's my problem? In fact, I better start it now so I have all summer to do those inches of stockinette and will have it finished by next winter. I think my anxiety is coming from this sweater not being in one piece and I'm going to have to sew it up. Again, that shouldn't stress me out because I know how to sew, I know how to ease, and the finishing of garments are always just part of the process for me.
Who knows what my deal is. I need to just jump in and do it. Heck, jump in and start both that one and the cabled one for me. Once I finish the hat.
2 comments:
Maybe the issue with that sweater is that the process seems so long when you have to finish 4 separate pieces as opposed to just one. You finish the front, have a momentary sense of closure, then realize that there are 3 more pieces to go! It's one of those character-building exercises for me. But the end result (in knitting and in character) is well worth it.
I've been wondering: would it be a good thing to use the Kitchener stitch to seam a sweater? On my recent project, I used the weaving stitch recommended by Maggie Righetti, but I wonder if the Kitchener might be even more suave. What do you think? I'd be happy to learn it if it'll be useful in projects beyond sock toes.
I've been working on a prayer shawl for a friend who's been having a hard time lately. It's taking a good while, even on size 10.5 needles (those excellent wooden ones Sock Sis gave me for Christmas--thank you, I love them!!). I keep having to hold back impatience, because I really want her to have the finished shawl before the weather gets so hot that she'd need a prayer A/C unit instead. But knitting a prayer shawl involves actually praying for the recipient along the way, and prayer is best unhurried.
Because of the shawl, other projects are mostly on hold. There's the pink cabled scarf, and then there's the tank top project to help me practice making fitted garments. The pattern calls for size 6 needles. I tried 6: way too big. Tried 3: still way too big. So I went out and bought size 1 circular needles. The yarn store lady thought I was nuts and should simply tighten up my knitting (which she couldn't see, because I didn't have it with me). But my knitting looks fine, and I don't want to put more tension in my fingers. So I guess I'll try knitting a sweater with these toothpicks and see how it comes out!
Congrats on getting the family moved! You've been such a Godsend to them around this time, and I know they really appreciate it.
Yep, I agree with the 4 different pieces thing. I read somewhere that you can also knit the sleeves at the same time to minimize the time-felt-knitting thing but I've had such a hard time doing things right while multi-tasking I think I'm going to do the good-student thing and do it as the directions say, one at a time.
Kitchener can be used to seam things but I think it's mainly for baby garments (no bulky seams on the little items). There's no good reason not to use it on regular garments and honestly, now that I have the hang of it it's not hard to do. The only thing is you have to have the same number of live stitches on each side you're sewing up so that might make things a little hard when easing the shoulder of a sweater or something like that.
Glad to hear that you're not trying to tighten up your knitting! Elizabeth Zimmerman said that tight knitting is never good for the hands and I always felt that even though you start tight you'll start relaxing and eventually be knitting the way you naturally do. #1 needles are now my friend (I'm using them and #3s on Hubby's sweater) and I'm glad I have someone else doing the same thing! I like thinking of them as raw spagetti! :)
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