Revelation, plus some photos
I have been remarkably grumpy for the last few months. I've chalked up most of that to job-related stress (and if I didn't feel bad about complaining in a public forum, you would be falling out of your desk chairs with the story I could tell you about Monday). However, I have been getting grumpier and grumpier at my knitting. It's not unusual for a project and me to have a little spat, but we usually give each other some space for a week or two, and then I pick it up and it's like nothing ever happened. Lately, however, I have been holding grudges. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't fix it. Knitting wasn't making me happy, and frogging (which I usually do with gleeful abandon) was making me feel downright defeated.
It didn't dawn on me until I blogged about Odessa: that was the first project I've completed since September. In fact, I only completed four projects in 2006. Compare that to:
- 17 projects completed in 2005
- five projects I am at least semi-actively working on
- five projects needing finishing or adjustment
- three projects that I intend to go back to someday
- uncounted projects I tried and scrapped entirely (I can think of at least three, so there were probably six or seven)
- a lot of swatching
So while I've done a fair bit of knitting, I don't have a whole lot to show for it, and I think that's what's making me so grumpy. This didn't occur to me at first, since I consider myself a process knitter, and it even made me a little uncomfortable at first. But then I realized: I'm not grumpy because I don't have more FOs to wear; I'm grumpy because part of the experience is the feeling of making something and making progress, and that has been missing from my knitting. I felt a whole lot better when Odessa was done.
In other news:
1- Odessa found a new home with a dance friend of mine who has (as she puts it) "a pea head". Cute, dainty, round head + Odessa = a very nice look. Kind of 30's moviestar-esque. If I ever get pictures, I'll post 'em.
2- I've been working on Serrano. I added about an inch an a half (which is a lot at this gauge), but I am getting some random YOs in the area of the decreases:
I'm going to frog back and be more consistent about those.
2- I finally took some pictures of Banff
I made this (completely resized and regauged) for Afghans for Afghans' fall sweater drive, but didn't finish in time, and it needed to be lengthened by a couple of inches anyway. I'm going to snip & graft (on the stockinette area, after my Odessa debacle), and then send it along in the next batch. I might make one for myself someday, although certainly with far less ease than the pattern calls for.
I've also got a couple of design ideas that I may or may not do anything with right now. However, I did finally get around to investigating some decorative shaping and details that I hope to copy from a commercial sweater I own:
decorative raglan decreases:
(stretched for detail on the left, relaxed on the right)
I need to take a closer look (not to mention a better photo), but it appears to be a combination of decreases, cables, and yarn-overs.
decorative detail:
I thought these was waist shaping, but it turned out to be purely decorative; the number of stitches doesn't change. Still, I might steal this one. They're just k2togs and ssks with staggered YOs. Once I've had the chance to confirm it, I'll chart it up and post it.
It didn't dawn on me until I blogged about Odessa: that was the first project I've completed since September. In fact, I only completed four projects in 2006. Compare that to:
- 17 projects completed in 2005
- five projects I am at least semi-actively working on
- five projects needing finishing or adjustment
- three projects that I intend to go back to someday
- uncounted projects I tried and scrapped entirely (I can think of at least three, so there were probably six or seven)
- a lot of swatching
So while I've done a fair bit of knitting, I don't have a whole lot to show for it, and I think that's what's making me so grumpy. This didn't occur to me at first, since I consider myself a process knitter, and it even made me a little uncomfortable at first. But then I realized: I'm not grumpy because I don't have more FOs to wear; I'm grumpy because part of the experience is the feeling of making something and making progress, and that has been missing from my knitting. I felt a whole lot better when Odessa was done.
In other news:
1- Odessa found a new home with a dance friend of mine who has (as she puts it) "a pea head". Cute, dainty, round head + Odessa = a very nice look. Kind of 30's moviestar-esque. If I ever get pictures, I'll post 'em.
2- I've been working on Serrano. I added about an inch an a half (which is a lot at this gauge), but I am getting some random YOs in the area of the decreases:
I'm going to frog back and be more consistent about those.
2- I finally took some pictures of Banff
I made this (completely resized and regauged) for Afghans for Afghans' fall sweater drive, but didn't finish in time, and it needed to be lengthened by a couple of inches anyway. I'm going to snip & graft (on the stockinette area, after my Odessa debacle), and then send it along in the next batch. I might make one for myself someday, although certainly with far less ease than the pattern calls for.
I've also got a couple of design ideas that I may or may not do anything with right now. However, I did finally get around to investigating some decorative shaping and details that I hope to copy from a commercial sweater I own:
decorative raglan decreases:
(stretched for detail on the left, relaxed on the right)
I need to take a closer look (not to mention a better photo), but it appears to be a combination of decreases, cables, and yarn-overs.
decorative detail:
I thought these was waist shaping, but it turned out to be purely decorative; the number of stitches doesn't change. Still, I might steal this one. They're just k2togs and ssks with staggered YOs. Once I've had the chance to confirm it, I'll chart it up and post it.
3 Comments:
I haven't finished much either. :-( It *is* a little grumptastic.
Hey, dunno if the email I had was correct, so hopefully you got my thank you, but in case you didn't? Thank you SO much for the tea. *hug*
hmm... yeah, i've been having trouble with the decreases on Serrano, too. Grrr...
I love that decorative detail!
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