Sunday, November 25, 2007

Trials and Tribulations

Okay, so far, just trials. Here's a picture of some Christmas knitting, waiting to be transformed into the tribulations part!


Pretty, ay? Boot socks, mittens, perhaps a scarf – my list is overconfident, so I'm trying to knit fast. See that beautiful Noro? Mittens, mittens. Mmmmm. But first, the boot socks. I'm afraid that I don't have enough yarn, and it's pretty pricey, so I don't want to buy more. So my plan is to knit as quickly as possible so I'll know if I need to buy that last skein of cream, before someone else does. Because I didn't want to waste time, I was a good girl, and made a gauge! I even washed it! I've only done this once before, but now that I know a bit more about knitting, it seems like a really good idea. My gauge swatch shrunk just a wee bit (half a stitch per inch and half a row per inch), but I made my sock with this shrinkage in mind. I'm racing along in my knitting, and about 11:30 at night, my husband looked over and said, “That looks a bit big.”

Yeah, it did. Having someone else say it really pointed it out. So I frogged it, quickly, while he watched and said, “Is that really necessary?” Well, it was only a couple of hours of knitting. Best to do it quickly. I went down a few stitches and began again. Then, after I finished the ribbing, the wee bit of alcohol had worn off enough for me to remember the stitch shrinkage. Dangit. It might have turned out okay when I washed it. But I kept knitting, because it really had looked big, and wool stretches after you wear it for awhile, I think.

I knitted like crazy yesterday, trying to get a sock done in a day, but I didn't get to the toe until this morning. I think when you're knitting like that, trying to get a whole lot done, you don't maybe try things on along the way, like you normally would. But I tried it on this morning to see if I should decrease for the toe, and the sock is really loose along my foot. REALLY loose. So loose that I'm thinking I might have fat calves, since it's fitting along my leg. I've never heard of anyone having to decrease for their foot, after the ribbing, so I stop and look at it, really hard. Yup, pretty loose along the foot. It might shrink in the wash, though, like the swatch. Then my subconscious stepped up and whispered I might want to count the stitches. So I did, and I found that after the heel gusset, I had decreased only to my original number of stitches, which was too loose, remember? I should have decreased more to get my second time around number of cast-on stitches. Grr. I quickly frogged again, then thought, “Oh, rats, I should have taken a picture.” Sorry, but you can imagine.

So I'm reknitting again today, and telling myself I am now a process knitter, since I enjoy knitting so dang much. But really, coming up on December, I turn into a product knitter, and I need stuff done. I need mittens done, and socks, and maybe a scarf. Yikes!

And by the way, it's really no good being a good girl and knitting your swatch, washing your swatch, measuring your swatch, if you are going to thereafter ignore your swatch.

9 comments:

Cheryl S. said...

Sounds like me - the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. I'm always making silly mistakes when I get in a hurry.

Jennifer said...

I feel your hurry. I'm in the center of my own knitting holiday tornado as well.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you as well. I'm a process knitter. But right now... it's all about the product. There MUST be a finished mitten by days end.
There OUGHT to be a started mitten too, preferably well into it's cuff.
.
Which may be why I dreamed about sideways mittens last night. help me. There are still 3 more pair to go!

AR said...

Swatch? hehehe I am such a naughty knitter. I did get all of the gift knitting done, though. Well, except for weaving some ends in some dishcloths. I even felted the clogs, and boy does that Patons shrink Fast!

Hope the socks fit!!

LaurieM said...

Oh good grief! You poor thing! In the future, think "Make haste slowly."

Anonymous said...

I hear ya, that's all I can say... :)

Anonymous said...

Swatches...ugh. I only do them when absolutely necessary. They have a really bad rep, lol.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed you can get it all done!

Brigitte said...

I think the only stuff I'll be knitting between now and Christmas is for gifts or charity!

Those are beautiful Noro colours, by the way.

Swatching? What is this "swatching" you speak of? :D

Anonymous said...

That is somewhat hilarious. Don't feel bad, even after swatching, I've had projects go wonky on me. They're just incorrigible, some of them.

The sock (so far) looks really cute though!