It has been since I last bought yarn!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Knitting Gods Have Abandoned Me...

There are times when the knit gods are with you, and they send you a mojo so fierce everything you knit turns into pure and glorious gold. (See Wollmeise knee socks) And then, there are the times when the knit gods step out for a Venti Latte, and abandon you in your dire hour of need.

I think the knit gods ordered a couple Venti Lattes and a Bear Claw to many and forgot about me!!

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Blanket progress is plugging along. This photo is taken mostly through the 5th skein of yarn, meaning I'm approximately half way. The problem is, I recently discovered, about #4 skein in, that I was twisting one of my decreases. (For those "need to know" kind of people, I was slipping my stitch to pass one stitch over purl wise when I should have been slipping it knit wise.)

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To the naked eye you probably can't see it. But it you look closely you can see that the right hand sides of the leaves, are twisted. Normally I'd just be peeved at myself and go about my regular business and admit that the receiver of the blanket is not going to care. EXCEPT, this blanket was my intended entry to be judged at the Stampede this year. A knitter, looking for flaws and judging my work, is probably going to notice this.

The problem is, I'm HALF. WAY. DONE. I've ripped back a lot of work in my days, but I just can't even begin to bring myself to think about ripping back and starting again. I just can't. I can't go there people, I'm sorry. I'm too committed now to go back. The insane part of me just wants to find another pattern, knit up some current yarn and get over it. The problem here is that I just don't see anything that is "leaping off the page" in the way of inspiration. I liked this pattern because I thought it was lovely and impressive and showcased my advanced skills. (Evidently not so advanced...) I thought this blanket was a worthy contender. NOTHING I look at gets me excited in the same way.

So what do I do? Do I attempt another blanket with blanket quantities of either white or purple, (or both) acrylic or do I attempt a simple pattern with a pretty verigated wool that just doesn't scream "winner" to me. It's too late to order Knit Picks- I'd really like to use "in stash yarn"- I just don't know WHAT looks impressive and what I can make. Or- do I just shrug my shoulders, suck it up, let the competitive side of me have an anyurism and just submit the "not perfect" blanket for judgement? WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME OH KNIT GODS!?!?

As if to add insult to injury today- my greatest fear was realized in the Man Socks. I ran out of yarn.

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Yes. This is a lovely photo of a partially finished sock and no yarn left. I am approximatley 5" short of wool. *SOBS* I do have another skein- but that was for sock #2. So, again, I am left wondering what a girl is to do? I bought this yarn a long time ago- at Michaels, (yes, it's wool... don't judge), and I'm fairly certain finding a matching dyelot is an impossible dream. So, do I go buy another 3rd skein, in a most likely non-matching dyelot, and knit the rest of the sock (and then twitch everytime I look at it when I see the different blacks) or do I just knit the rest of the sock in some leftover grey or blue yarns I had from other socks.

I'd be more akin to the second idea (with the different colors) if it were just the toes. It gives the sock a whimsical feel... business up top, party on the bottom. But starting a different color mid-foot just feels kind of like cheating or wrong or something....!! (Can you tell I'm anal about things?) So- what would you do? DAD... not to be completely obvious here, but YOUR OPINION on this would be the best opinion I can get. If, hypothetically speaking, these socks were for you, would you prefer the color or a black that doesn't match up? Hypothetically speaking of course....

The knit gods better hurry up and finish their Latte's... because there's a serious knitting crisis going on over her at Chateau Nennie!!! SEND YOUR SUGGESTIONS!!!

(I don't know why my pictures are posting fuzzy... it's tres annoying... for those of you who posts photos in blogger, who do you use and what size do you post? I'm the blogger equivalent of a fetus, let's assume I know nothing. Any info you can provide would be VERY helpful.)

1 comment:

Knitting Alchemist said...

Sorry to hear about your struggles. The Gods will return soon I'm sure. For the blanket, I say finish it as is. If you have the strength to fight your competitive tendencies and overlook the pattern deviation, submit it in the contest. We don't know how advanced the judges will be; they may not notice the change at all. And you have married yarn and pattern brilliantly; the blanket is lovely.

Then, take a breath, and start leisurely looking for next year's contest project. You are a fearless and awesome knitter, with or without the knitting Goddesses!