Stubborn Knitting

Do you ever knit and knit and knit knowing your going to rip?  It happens to me quite often, and can be very frustrating.  What I mean is, I'll be making something and along the way I'll see one of those annoying defects in how a stitch looks or how the yarn I'm knitting with doesn't sit right on the fabric, either it looks splitty, looks loose, or just plain sticks out like a sore thumb to me. 

Usually these things are only noticeable to me, as all items knitters make are personal to that knitter, and I know I'm not alone, all knitters have their own opinion about what they make and can easily point something out they would change if they could. 

Well I do that alot, and I have not qualms about ripping back inches of hard work or even frogging all together to start over.  I'll do, and I do it quite often, not because I mess a pattern up but because I'm just plain picky about my work.  No I'm not some knitting genius, just a perfectionist, my perfection, not others' perfection.  My perfection is personal to me and where I'm going with this is, that "my perfection" can usually get me into trouble or cause alot of wasted knitting time.  Well one project which sparked this vent, is the Homin shawl.  Take a look at the latest WIP photo for it.

Can you see anything wrong with this lace edging?  The pattern is written with lace edging first, then you pick up stitches to continue the body portion of the shawl.  Now, somewhere along the way, in the first lace edging pattern repeat, I miscounted the row I was one and voila, I no longer have a straight edge.  Now I noticed something was askew about halfway done with the 2nd lace edging repeat but that whole "my perfection" thing got in the way.  Sometimes even though I know that something's wrong and it's not something small but rather significant to the overall pattern, I'll be my most worst enemy, flat out, stubborn.  I'll fight myself and become reluctant to rip or frog, whichever is needed.  So I fought myself on this one.  Literally getting 5 full lace edging repeats into it before finally stepping back and saying, yes, it's time to give and admit the problem.  So after all that knitting and time spent, I'll be frogging and casting on again.  You better believe I'll pay attention to the row next round.  

My vent done.  Why don't I share some other more relaxing projects.

A newbie fresh on the needles.

Picked this yarn up this past weekend at work, it is Zealana Kiwi lace, new at the LYS.  Lovely lace, and it's 40% New Zealand Possum!  Not the freaky American Possum's we have, but New Zealand Possum.  This was one of our featured yarns at this past weekend's Pennisula Shop Hop.  I casted on a simple narrow lace scarf, great for summer wear.

Again I picked up the Cotton Candy Lace Hearts blanket. Started another block, I'm guessing I'll do 5 or 6 block rows before binding off.  I'm still amazed at how soft this yarn is, simply silky.

And the WIP of choice right now, mainly because I want it done so I can wear it, is the Vita Cardi.  I'm finishing up one arm, and then I have one more arm left, a collar, blocking, seaming, and finishing.  Not too far from the finish line but getting there.  

That's it for WIP Wednesday.  Let's see if there's an FO post coming soon.  Happy Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday

So, where am I at?

I've been making good progress on the VITA cardi, working on it pretty often.  The back is completed, one of the front panels is done and almost half (if not more than that) of the 2nd front panel is close to done.   After that its arms, front collar, and belt.  Oh yah, then block and seam.  The ribbing portion can be a bit annoying, knitting almost 10 inches of ribbing can sometimes be a pain because of swinging the yarn "front to back, front to back" and so on. 

YES, I'm still liking this cardi, and get more excited the closer I get to completion.

As for the Homin shawl I started, I ripped out, not because I didn't love it or went astray with the pattern, because I simply didn't keep track of where I was at.  I did read the knitting to determine where I was at in the pattern, but I still wasn't confident, and figured that I hadn't made much headway into the shawl that it was better to frog and start over then chance the setup rows.  So a'froggin I went.

So here she is once more, a wee smaller than before, but soon it'll grow.  I had this in my lovely green flower Lantern Moon bag and was laughing to myself when I started 'oogling the Ella Rea yarn cake for the shawl.  Cracked myself up that I was acting as if I was 'oogling a new yarn I hadn't seen before and realizing, "ahh, yah that's why you bought it!".

In other WIP news, the Cranked Trekking KAL socks are still stuck at Clue 2, I just haven't had the time to download the remaining clues and continue knitting.  I'm in no rush for these either but being so close to another FO is tempting, so maybe just maybe I'll squeeze in time *-)

Ooh, and I have a new "sooper seekret" project for my Etsy store that I've been plotting.  I have a few "opening day" items I'm working on, this being one of them.  I don't have a date set yet, I don't want to rush the process, but I'm guessing end of 2nd quarter beginning of 3rd quarter.  It may even be sooner, like a preview opening.  Here's a picture of some of the key materials for one of the items.  Can you guess what it is?  I'll say a majority of knitters have them, but both items have yet to be married into one complete piece, if that makes any sense.  That's about all I can say without totally answering the clue. 8)

Happy Wednesday!

A new bag, a cardi, and more yarn...oh my

I splurged my last visit, or rather visit(s), to the my LYS, and not really visits per say, but my last couple of shifts.

The awesome LYS owner and friend always has such a great eye for notions and bags and she's not failed again.  I had been eyeing these gorgeous new Lantern Moon bags everytime I was at work, there perfect for a nice day at the beach.

I finally broke down and picked one up.

I love it!  The handles are soft and nice and wide to handle the full loads of the whatever you put in it.  There's full inner pockets from top of the bag down to the base around the entire bag.  It's perfect for stashing yarn, clothes, food, you name it.  It'll definitely be used this summer come beach visits.  There's only 1 of these left, not in the green I got but in a very lovely pink.  I'm a green gal but the pink is very nice too. 

Onto my other splurge, new yarn, Vita, cast on for a new summer Cardi, one to schlepp along for those breezy summer nights.  We have a sample at the shop in O'Wool yarn, but I went with Vita, a recycled wool & cashmere blend.  The cashmere is suttle, not overwhelming at all, not that there's a problem with cashmere, I love it, but for summer you'd want something not as warm as cashmere.  

The beginning of the pattern is about 9 inches of 2x2 ribbing followed by another 4 or so inches of stockinette st.  So far a pretty fast pattern, I can't wait to have this finished to carry with me.

Lastly I bought a couple more skeins/balls of Cotton Candy yarn for the Hearts blanket.

I also bought 2 new books, one of which has some really cool patterns in it, but I was too lazy and forgot to take pictures so I'll share later this week.  Who knows, maybe I'll have cast on a pattern from one of the books or maybe two of them as well!