Saturday, January 09, 2010

Yarn-o-topia: Process Versus Product

Let me start this post with a big sigh.

*Sigh*

This school break was supposed to be full of finished products or at least a half bucket of progress. I had started Liesl with some navy blue Cascade 220. I'd cast on, get several inches in and there was inevitably some sort of mistake a couple inches back. A stitch wouldn't get increased and it became quite obvious in the pattern. Or I failed to follow the instructions for the right row. I ended up casting on and knitting (up to 8 inches the final time!) at least six times. I sighed and told myself that I just wasn't feeling enough love for it at this time. I pulled out another Ysolda pattern, the Peaks Island Hood. I wasn't immediately smitten with this pattern when I first saw it, but when I imagined it in the navy blue that I had been toiling with (with big red buttons!), I was obsessed. Good thing I have been obsessed; I've had to cast on and redo the infernal thing about a dozen times. Yes, a dozen times. And I still haven't got anywhere (it's back at the cast on row AGAIN).

Now it's the weekend before school starts and...I have nothing to show. That is, nothing to show but knowledge. With each frogging, I have learned more about the patterns and how little I know about 'reading' my knitting. So in lieu of Liesl and Peaks Island, I decided to give another pattern a try. I just picked up the yarn for the Garter Yoke Cardigan by Melissa LeBarre. I'm doing a Noro Silk Garden yoke with a Lambs Pride Worsted body (a modification I saw on Ravelry and liked greatly). I'm hoping with all the garter and stockinette stitch, I should be able to fly along while I'm hitting the books.

Wow. I can tell how much I hate doing a gauge swatch because I'm blogging instead of knitting. Back to the swatch!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Argh. Sorry to hear about your knitting woes. I empathize completely. I really like that colorway in the Noro. So yummy!

Jodi said...

Oh I hear you! I hate those guages too. Hats off to you for trying again!

Anonymous said...

I feel like I don't really get good at reading my knitting until I'm at least a third of the way through the project, and that usually means a bunch of mistakes before I get there. Sucks. It's like I can only read my knitting after I've knit 20 repeats of it.