Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Most of

the time, knitting is very relaxing for me. Lace, garter stitch, cables, I love it all, and those nights where I got maybe 2 hours of sleep in a row, knitting socks kept me sane. I always feel a sense of accomplishment and not much makes me happier than giving my loved ones knitted gifts. NOT.THIS.WEEKEND. I guess this is what I get for rushing through things, knitting with one eye and the other eye on Robby, it was bound to happen, I've had many knitting successes, and it was payback time. I've been working on a Rebecca sweater for going on two years, I think she was mad at me because she was stuffed in various boxes and tupperware while I knitted bright, shiny, new things. After finally knitting the sleeves, I noticed on the front that sunlight had bleached a portion of the sweater (she sat in my car for a month). I was tempted to go over it with a black Sharpie, but I did the right thing and frogged it. When it came time to block the sweater, something terrible happened, I wet blocked it and like a good little knitter I started all my new balls of yarns on the ends so I could weave them up the sides. Well, I was in a rush, because Robby was in the bouncy chair, something got snagged, and a section on the side got pulled too tight and snapped. I managed to untangle this wet sogging mess and get the stitches on dpns so I could graft when everything was dry.See that little frayed tail? That's where it snapped, I could have unknitted further, but the idea of trying to graft and do a cable at the same time struck fear into my heart. So, once everything was mostly dry (and smelling kind of dank) I tied on a new piece of yarn to that little mangled tail, and said a prayer then I tried to graft the ribbing, then tried it again...and again..and finally I thought I got it right, then I looked at it today and it was still wrong, finally I got it to where it looks ok.It's not perfect, but after the 6th time of trying to graft, my yarn was getting all untwisted (I hate you GOA! You and your 10 little singles plied into one are the bane of my life!) and fraggly looking so I'm leaving it, at least it's on the side so it won't be noticeable. If that wasn't enough for ya, remember Robby's lil' Malabrigo Tomten I've been working on? Well, you know after you have knit 28 ridges on the fronts, and the back, you rejoin all the stitches to make the hood? Make sure you don't twist any of those panels, like this.I wasn't undoing the grafting on the hood and ripping it out, so I broke out the scissors and snipped, did I mention I had NO green Malabrigo left? So, I unknit one row and grafted from each side and had the two tails meet in the middle in the back.I did have a bit of success this weekend, I made some progress on one sleeve, and experimented with some short rows to get a little bit of shaping on the sleeve. It's not much, but I think it makes a nice transition from the shoulder to the arm, it has more of a ben d to it, I wanted to practice the technique for when I do the shoulders on Rob's Tomten. Speaking of, here it is 19" of garter stitch goodness,I'm ready to divide everything up for the fronts and back, I'm making the armholes much shallower, more like a regular sweater. More on that next time!

I've just posted to Robby's blog so go check it out too! If you want to get on the list, just leave me a comment, and I'll email you an invite.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

lots of knitting going on, thanks for such awesome comments on my posts, i want to meet you if you ever come west to disneyland area...any chances? smiles, bea, you are awesome.

Yarnhog said...

Oh, my. I've had days like that. I had one just recently. Chocolate helps. Or alcohol. (The grafting on the sweater looks fine. Better than fine. No one will ever notice, and you'll forget about it in time.)

Anonymous said...

Wow, you sure had a stroke of bad luck. I'm sure it will pass! It all looks beautiful, by the way!

Anonymous said...

I may have said it before, but here it goes again: The fact that you can knit ANYTHING with a baby is amazing. We didn't adopt until my daughter was 8 months old, so sleep wasn't an issue for us. Maybe if I'd been up more, I would have been able to knit more!

I do know what you mean about knitting and the satisfaction you get from it. There are days when it's all I look forward to!

Yes, please remind me of your other blog's address. I forgot to bookmark it.

Anonymous said...

You sure have been busy! I think the grafting looks great. I think I would have cried if that happened to me.

Off to visit Robby's blog now :)

Anonymous said...

Look at you go! I think your fixes look great. I can't even believe you're knitting at all with a wee one. I don't think I did any crafting when my kids were under 1.

Anonymous said...

If my son is awake, I can not do anything except watch him. I have tried knitting while he is, you know, being a kid...impossible. I have lost stitches, and had to do too much ripping, so now I just save it for his asleep hours. The malabrigo tomten! Love! I want to knit my kid a tomten for this fall/winter, Robby's is going to be very cute!

Anonymous said...

those are amazing knitting rescues! that all takes skill.

sure it's frustrating but still i'm impressed with your skill and like yarnhog says you won't notice the grafting with time.

i hope you'll model the rebecca for us soon.

Anonymous said...

Wow - good work! I'd have conveniently "forgotten" that I had ever even heard of that project and gone on to something else.

I have in mind to make a tomten for my little one and then maybe another for Jordan. We'll see. I'm not getting much knitting done these days.

I'd like an invite, if you don't mind. :) blogmailATbilli-jeanDOTcom

Faith said...

That tomtem is going to be painfully cute! I love the colors. Hang in there lady!

Unknown said...

Blame it on the Rebeccca pattern...not you...it's the sane thing to do...Rebecca sucks and the patterns will mess themselves up like little naughty knitting elves that live in the evil places with acrylic yarn and cheap aluminum purple needles!

Green Tea and Henny said...

I have always wanted to know how to knit but everytime I even think about trying,,,I feel lost and give up on the idea. But just looking at your knitting makes me want to try again. If only I know where to start and how to start it.

Green Tea and Henny said...

Are you near carlisle arkansas?

Anonymous said...

I hope you had some time to yourself after all that! That was, hopefully, just a bit of bad luck. Maybe you can treat yourself to some sock yarn at your lys!

- MJ

Anonymous said...

Hope all is well Bea! Miss you blogging!