Thinking out loud

Right now, I'm preparing for a 5-6 week trip back home and pondering what all to take with me. It's true that I've been knitting more slowly as of late, but part of that is the internet's fault and when home, I feel it is horribly rude to spend more then a half hour online checking what is important. Meaning, I do a lot less putzing around. Which is going to open up talking/knitting time, since I like to do the two of them together.

I do not want to err on the side of caution and end up running out of projects to work on. It will leave me vulnerable to the siren song of buying more yarn to work with. On the other hand, I do not want to bring a sizable portion of my yarn collection with me either because we always travel with limited space. (And we ALWAYS come back with more then we left with thanks to doting relatives.) Tricky.

Also been giving thought to reassigning projects to some of the yarn I need to use. I have a few larger quantities that I've been avoiding using as I'm not 100% sure the project I want to use them for is a good fit for me and I've been dragging my butt waiting to see someone more shaped like me model the project on ravelry. Alas, this hasn't happened yet and the yarn either needs to be used, or it needs to be destashed.

In particular, I'm questioning what I want to use this Cashcotton DK for. Originally, I planned to use it for Cherry. Now I'm not sure I'm up for heavy pattern alteration and it's been causing me to not use this yarn. Even with alteration, I have yet to see anyone with a curvier figure wear it and model it. But with the color the yarn is, I'm a little picky about what I want to do with it. I'm thinking I may make it into a Flutter Sleeve Cardigan. Not totally sold on the idea of an aqua one. I think Basic Black could be another good fit for it. Either way, I have the pattern, I just need to make up my mind and I think this project is definitely coming home with me. I've had the yarn in my stash for almost a year now and it hasn't been used yet.

Noticeable silence

I have not blogged about knitting at all this month and there is a good reason for this: I have been throwing a knitting tantrum and been in a foul mood in regards to my hobby. The CPH which was such a joy to knit and was turning out great did a complete 180 when I seamed on the sleeves. They were too small and pulled so much that they made the body too short and it went downhill from there. The sweater is on a time out in the upper-most area of my closet where I will not have to look at it or think much of it for at least 6 weeks. I know what I should do, but as stated, I'm not feeling kind towards it at the moment and decided to just let it sit as-is.

This is the second time I have tried this pattern and had problems with the sleeves. The truth is, I HATE seamed sleeves. I'm not doing them anymore and for set in sleeves, I'm doing them from the top-down as "afterthoughts." Custom Knits has a great tutorial on how to do them and that's what I'm going to learn with my next project, if not try it with this one. No more of this knitting to specifications and then finding out the sleeve is almost 10 rows shorter then the sleeve opening it has to fit into stuff. No more trying to wrap it around my arm as I work and it appears to fit just fine and then upon seaming, SURPRISE! too small crap. No more.

CPH, you're on notice.

However, this has meant great things for my Zig Zag blanket, which in theory should be a drudgery of a knit. It has turned out to be quite enjoyable and the fact that it can't not fit when done has earned it some brownie points. Who knew that knitting a fingering weight 64" wide blanket could be fun? Slow, yes, but fun and soothing. I'm enjoying the randomness and trying to make sure that yarns that are going next to each other do not clash, but that's as much thought as I'm putting into it.

After stewing for more then a week, I decided to suck it up and cast on another sweater. With more then a dozen of them waiting to be knit from my tote, it had to be done. So I cast on for the Soap Bubble wrap, found my gauge to be a bit small and decided going up two sizes would work out perfectly. Until I screwed up the lace pattern right away. Then the next morning, I realized that doing mental math in the wee hours is a bad idea. I was off by 1/4 stitch per inch and cast on a size way too big. So I ripped it and recast on for a size larger then I needed. I made it to about 6 rows into the pattern and noticed something was off. Due to the stiff nature of the hemp, I didn't notice I had dropped a stitch in the crazy pattern and it could not be fixed. So I ripped it out a second time. Things did not seem to bode well for this knit, but I cast on one more time. Now, I am 28 rows up into it and it's doing just dandy this time around. It better stay that way. Working with the hemp took some getting used to and despite being presoftened and beat up, it's still pretty rough on the hands.

That's about all that has been going on in my knitting world. Frustration, tantrums, and avoiding the urge to purchase more yarn. I have declared the month of April to be yarn free and so far, I've managed to keep it that way. This is the longest I've gone without buying yarn in six months. I'm hoping as I near the month mark, it will be easier to resist the urge to buy and stash.