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.