The Nameless Knit Blog

Halfway through!

I am officially half-way through my Head Huggers hood/scarf.  We've managed to come to terms.  I may even knit myself one, in a nice wool...  some day.

But for now, my thoughts are turning to what's next.

What's next?

It's a toss-up.

I've wanted to do Eris since...  oh, I don't know...  it came out!  I've got some loverly Elsepeth Lavold Silky Wool Tweed in a really flattering brown that would be perfect for it.  But yeah.  Complicated?  Also, long?

I'm also tempted by the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole.  I don't know what possible need I could have for a stole.  I've also never done entrelac.  But I've been seeing some done in Noro Silk Garden.  And I have 18 skeins of the stuff staring me in the face every time I go into my stash.  It was originally going to be a sweater.  But I am over stripey sweaters.

So what to do?

What...  to...  do...

Wherein bad language is used muchly

So you're knitting along, as one does.  And all of a sudden, you're left with nothing in your hands.  The yarn just ends.  And worst of all?  It's...  No, soggy isn't the right word.  This yarn is soppin' wet*.  We are talking wring it out and it will drip wet.

Why?

Because you have a saboteur sapping your progress from below.

A fiendish, fuzzy, four-footed saboteur.

Goes by the name of Bertie.

Here he is behind bars, where he belongs.

Ate my yarn.

Yup.

Also, fuck this pattern.  Seriously.  Eight-row repeat.  Four very similar rows.  Four other very similar rows.  In a pattern that is almost, but not quite random.  I don't know where the hell I am in the pattern, unless I keep very, very good notes.  I'm not so good with the note taking.  Especially when there are less than 50 stitches in a row.  That's a lot of putting down the knitting, picking up the pen, putting down the pen, picking up the knitting again.  And stitch counters?  Don't get me started.  Way too easy to forget.  So I say again.  Fuck this pattern.  Fuck this fucking pattern.  It is beating me.  I'm sick of ripping.  I'm sick of picking up.  I'm sick of repeating.

I want it over.

Also, I need egg rolls and jelly donuts.  Now.

*  I once did a trial about wet roofing insulation.  Try to contain your excitement.  The plaintiff's attorney was a little man with a big voice.  He described the insulation as "soppin' wet" in tones of such enthusiastic southern vim and vigor that forevermore, when something is wet that shouldn't be, I will hear his voice in my head.  "Soppin wet!"

I finished something!!!

With the help of a weekend off and a Buffy film-fest, I actually managed to finish my first pair of Jaywalkers!  And here they are!

Aren't they beauts?

But confession time?  Two mistakes on the second one.  You perfectionists out there, just look away now, because I didn't fix them.

The first was a little hole when I picked up stitches for the ankle gusset.  Where does it come from?  Where?  And why not every time?  I did them both the exact same way, and yet the first one?  No hole!  Gah! 

The other one was definitely my mistake, though.  I forgot that you decrease all the way down to 18 stitches on the sole, instead of leaving it at 21, and went for a couple of inches at 21, until I started to wonder why they weren't doing the cool color-pooling tie-dyed effect the other ones did in the foot, which I kind of like, by the way.  And I know I should have ripped back those couple of inches.  Frankly, the ripping and re-doing, I don't mind so much.  But the picking up tiny little stitches with tiny sharp little needles?  Yeah.  No.  They're bloody socks!  For me!  I can live with it!

I will, however, try to do better on my Painted Ladies.  I've highlighted the pertinent passages in the pattern and everything.

But first, I have a scarfy-hoody thing (Head Hugger to its friends) to finish up for my grandma.  The pattern is great, but it's an insipid lavender and a wool/acrylic blend.  It makes me think of mental hospitals.  But Grandma will love it, and she's the only grandma I've got, so I keep plugging away.

Now I just have to decide what to do next...

Sadness

I just bound off on Tubey and tried it on.

Well, it could be a little more unflattering...  if it had egg on, I suppose.

I think a good frogging is in order.

I need to make the shoulder part narrower so it doesn't ruck up in the back and give me more bulgy bits than I already have.

I need to rib the sleeves.  I really need to lose the stripes on the sleeves.  I need to lose the bell shape, even though that was originally one of my favorite bits of the pattern.

Instead of hideously unflattering stripes that seem to stagger drunkenly over said body bulges, I'm going to go for blocks of my favorite colors.

I need to take some measurements.  I need to measure from armpit to armpit, and I need to measure from the bump in my spine at the base of my neck to the place on my spine that intersects the imaginary line between my armpits to get the proper measurements I need.

So I need to frog.  An entire sweater.  Made up of short lengths of different colored yarns.  And then knit an entire sweater back from it.

Oh well, I must look at the bright side.  At least I don't have to weave in the ends yet!