Catching up, carrying on

Home late last night, one tuckered knitter, and today I’ve made a vow to sit at my desk all day and get caught up on my work.  I love being away for events (especially since lately, I seem to go to great ones, Knit City was outstanding) but it sure throws off my my ability to get paperwork and desk work done.  Today I haven’t even put a sock on my desk – so that it can’t tempt me.  That’s a theme over the last little while.  Not casting on, or not having something with me so that I can’t cheat.  It was part of my plan for this last weekend, actually.  When I was packing to go, I deliberately underyarned myself.  I had the toe of a sock done, and knew that I’d crush the rest of the sock on the way there, and sure enough, by the time that Saturday rolled around, I had finished them.

socksdone2 2014-10-07

They’re a standard toe up (which isn’t very standard for me, but the yarn called for it) and a Men’s medium, and will go straight into the long range planning box.

socksdone3 2014-10-07

That’s pair #11 for this year, and it’s only the 7th of October, so I’m feeling like a superhero. (Note to self: it is when you are awash in confidence that things start to go wrong. Don’t let your guard down.)

(The yarn is Must Stash – Dark Side of the Moon. Out of stock at present, but back soon, I’m sure.)  Sam thoughtfully modelled them this morning before she headed out.

socksdone 2014-10-07

So, when I was packing, I knew those would be done fast – and I thought about putting yarn for another pair in the suitcase, and then I looked at the little baby sweater that’s got a deadline breathing it’s hot breath on my cheek, and I didn’t do it.  I went with just the sock, and the sweater, and I thought that would force me to work on it. I was almost right.

sweaterfloor 2014-10-07

The sweater (Minni) just needed a graft down the side, and sleeves, and then a band round the whole thing, and I keep using the word “just” but the truth is that this sweater is knit on 2.25mm needles, and it’s probably about the same work as a full size adult jumper. I keep letting its size fool me, and that’s a mistake. That’s how you end up with a deadline too close, so was trying not to underestimate it. The sweater – besides being a lot of work, is at this point, rather a lot of boring work.  I practically weep tears of ennui when I think of it, and since I usually knit to relieve boredom, rather than create it, my usual motivators aren’t working. What I needed, I knew, was no choice.  If it was my only knitting, I would have to knit it, because….well.  I have to knit.

That night, when the sock ran out in the hotel room. I turned my eye to the sweater, heaved a sigh of regret, and picked it up. Then I turned for the sleeve needles, and after a fruitless search, realized I’d forgotten them. The plan was crap. I had a whole needle roll, chock full of every size of DPN that I didn’t need, and not a single right one for the sleeves. I made it through that evening somehow – without any knitting (and without ending up in prison) and the next morning I was the first person in the marketplace, hunting up a set.

sweateronesleeve 2014-10-07

It occurred to me later, too late really, that my sock needles, the ones that I’d just finished using, were TOTALLY THE RIGHT SIZE. Panic does terrible things to a knitter.   I also managed somehow, to force up the will to not have the new sock yarn I bought wound up – even in the face of an offer from someone to do just that.  I’m proud of that moment.  Now I’ve got one sleeve done, and I need to do 130 rounds for the other sleeve, and then the bands, and a little making up, and that’s doable. As long as I can avoid casting something else on, this should be easy.

I’m thinking about putting the ballwinder and swift in the car and having Joe hide it from me for a few days. It might be the only way.

54 thoughts on “Catching up, carrying on

  1. “It occurred to me later, too late really, that my sock needles, the ones that I’d just finished using, were TOTALLY THE RIGHT SIZE.”

    SNORK! coffee right out my nose! and know that i’m not laughin’ at ya, i’m laughin’ with ya, cuz that’s totally something i would do…..

  2. I’m having a similar problem with a similar project.
    A sweater for my 2 year old that I just don’t want to finish. It’s worsted weight though.

  3. You got this! It may be coming down to the wire, but you always come through and you will on this project, too. Can’t wait to see it finished.

  4. OH That little sweater is so cute! How special to have a little girl who can wear a little sweater!

    Yes, I think it is good to put the ball winder somewhere hidden, and the swift too. That will make you thing twice about winding another skein of yarn. Oh but you probably have some pull skeins in your stash, you do probably….don’t cha?

  5. Pingback: Catching up, carrying on | Yarn Buyer

  6. Kind of like frantically looking for your glasses for 2 hours that are ON YOUR HEAD!. One time I found my mom’s cell phone in the fridge. She had been looking for it for two days….guess she wasn’t hungry!

  7. Having been a pregnant Mom once, you wouldn’t want to condemn some poor female friend to any extra days of pregnancy in the later stages, would you? Because we all know that a baby can’t be born until the Yarn Harlot finishes the baby knitting…

  8. I promised my friend’s son I’d make him a dinosaur scarf, and I got a really good start on it. And then I got distracted by something shiny and I lost my momentum on the scarf. I’ve now gone back to it (okay, it’s sitting on my knitting chair glaring at me) but I just don’t even want to look at it. It has charts and I don’t like charts. I know it’s best to just barge through a project and get it done. And while plowing through a project, never, ever browse on Ravelry. Yeah, that’s it. It’s all Ravelry’s fault that while the dinosaur scarf has been neglected, I’ve managed to almost finish my new love, a cute little baby cardigan. I even learned a new way of doing buttonholes for it. So I’m really admiring your self-control and I can’t wait to see the finished Minni.

  9. heeheeheehee….happens to all of us. I needed a size 4 16″ circular yesterday to do a hat band and couldn’t, for the life of me, find one in my [huge] collection of needles. I went to Michaels and bought [another] one. I’m sure mine is on a WIP somewhere, but since I’m moving soon and a lot of stuff is already boxed up, I gave myself permission to buy [another] one. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do….can’t wait to see the finished little sweater.

  10. That sweater is simply gorgeous — it will be worth all the work, I know!

    That being said, I am finishing up a Shetland lace shawl (a belated wedding gift for my niece), and I’m getting close enough to the edging that I made the mistake of doing the math to see how many repeats of the sideways-knit edging pattern I’d have to knit.

    140. That number has just about sapped my will to knit. Unfortunately, I set myself up so that unlike my usual 27 simultaneous projects, that’s the only thing I have to knit for a few more days. Sigh. I guess it’s time to have a Doctor Who marathon and knit 13 rows (of 14-22 stitches each, i.e., not very darn many) 140 times in a row. Sigh.

    • Play math games with yourself and think in terms of sides — anything to get that number down in your mind. It’s not ZOMG140REPEATS! — it’s only 35 repeats. That’s almost nothing. You can whip out seven repeats easy, and you’re already 20% done, right?

      Then, you’ve got a whole SIDE finished! Just do that three more times. Three is nothing!

      I play these numbers games with myself all the time.

  11. First, POINTS! for the snarfs (it’s a family thing LOL)…. those socks are amazing but I’m currently in the middle of sock h*ll…. finished one pair for my youngest son (size 14) to find they’re tight around the legs…. now i’m working on a pair for my firstborn…. which required me to rework your basic sock recipe to fit…. and then we went shoe shopping yesterday and instead of them being for size 12 feet, he now needs size 14 (fortunately for him, i’m still on the leg of the first sock).

  12. The thing I love most about you Stephanie is – you bring out the knitter in all of us. We knitters live parallel lives. We experience the same knitting ups & downs. Your writing of these knitting experiences brings us all closer. And I love every line. Thank you!

  13. I’ve done the very thing – had the right needles IN MY HAND and couldn’t “find” them. Sigh. Good on you for sticking to it, it’s going to be fabulous!

    • I’ve found that, if you take especial care with the last third of the skein, a hand-wound, centre-pull ball is a thing of exquisite beauty, that lasts through about 97% of the knitting. Hand-wrapping doesn’t take as long as you might think, and it’s funny-as-all-get-out how many fellow knitters are impressed by it. It started when I couldn’t find my ball-winder, and I wouldn’t do it with lace-weight (I’m not *that* patient!), but hand-wrapping centre-pulls is now a standard part of any project that’s sock-yarn or heavier.

  14. I was knitting a blanket for my unborn child (actually, it was a baby blanket sized adaptation of Stephanie’s One Row Scarf) while I was home on modified bedrest. I thought I was making great progress, until one morning I decided to see how long it took me to knit one row. Big mistake, because finding out I was only knitting 4 rows per hour made me want to cry. It was soooo hard to work on it after that, but I did finally finish the blanket- when he was 5 mo old.

  15. Oops

    Employ the power of twitter next time too? There’s bound to be a knitter nearby who can help or at least offer alternative knitting options for the evening!

    • That’s what all of us said at knit city the next day. Steph could have tweeted or instagrammed and a knitter would have brought needles to her hotel room. She didn’t Telly’s about the sock needles tho. She may not have realized it yet. And I must note in her defense that not one of us said ” hey what about your sock needles?”

  16. I think that the problem is the “Minni” sounds like “mini” and so one would think it was a wee little thing that would take just a wee bit of time. “Min”-utes, perhaps.

  17. I have SOOOOOO many multiples of SOOOOOO many things. I totally believe that I am keeping the entire needlecraft industry afloat all by myself! Lol! And just so Sweetpeajenny doesn’t feel alone, I will also admit to spending a couple of hours looking for the glasses that were perched right on top of my menopausal, brain fried head! I also spent three years moaning about how badly I wanted a walking foot for my 25 year old Bernina sewing machine but they were so expensive and I just couldn’t justify the expenditure. Well, I was in the process of redoing my work room about a year ago and as I was cleaning out a drawer preparatory to moving the table, guess what I found? Yep, a Bernina walking foot in it’s box with the instructions. Now, I want everyone to understand that this was not a new table nor was this a drawer that I had never opened and it certainly was not a surprise left by either of my children or husband as they had no idea what a walking foot was. It was a table I had owned for years and a drawer that I was in and out of frequently. To this day, I have absolutely NO MEMORY of purchasing this long desired item. They cost about $150……. I would remember spending that kind of money, right? Nope, no memory of it whatsoever! Makes me a little worried about other things I might have done that I don’t know that I did…….Lol!

  18. You are so funny! I admire your self-awareness and hope that Joe has grabbed the ball-winder and swift and hid them well!

  19. I love those socks so much. The colours remind me of Star Trek (the 60’s and 70’s stuff) for some reason. If I recall that’s the second time around with this yarn, yes?

  20. I am currently forcing myself to finish Antler, a baby sized version. Because it was a request, it has sat for a while, but I need to get it done before I go back to work on my blanket squares and my unfinished projects. So, of course, I cast on socks, to soften the blow of returning to Antler. I like Antler a whole lot! I want to knit one for myself! But because it is knitting on demand, it’s making me not want to knit it. Silly, I know. I must go right now, and start the yoke cables. Must. 🙂
    p.s. the socks are amazing! I love that yarn!

  21. Don’t tempt fate about feeling ahead of the game on your sock challenge. Throw salt over your shoulder, or walk three times counter clockwise….something! (Not that I am superstitious or anything 😉 )

  22. Well, I hate to point this out, but this is the 2nd time you’ve brought that sweater with you & then there was a snafu & you couldn’t easily work on it. Maybe you’re just not “into” this project too much anymore. I speak from experience!

  23. So this am I was headed out to sit with stepmother as dad is close to passing. He’s 97 so he has lived a long, long life. I cannot do the transition from heel to foot on the 2 color sock I am making. I keep looking at it and being defeated. So I decided to make a simple hat. Then I looked at the tangle of circulars in my container and gave up and bought myself a new 16″ #7 needle. What a relief to not even try to find that circular. Yeah, I need a better system, but right now I just needed a less stress solution. And the hat was just right.

  24. The knitting universe has a strange need for equilibrium. You did toe-up for a change. I’m part way down a top-down, when my standard is toe-up. The yarn called for it. 🙂

    Clearly there’s something bigger going on here…

  25. Many times I have looked at that Minni pattern, and then looked at the yardage requirement and come to my senses. You are a braver woman than I!

    PS: KnitCity was a blast-thanks for helping to make it great 🙂

  26. Thanks to you, I’m knitting Minni also, the smallest size. Sock needles, sock yarn; enough yarn to knit two pairs of socks (and you just got one pair done in less than a weekend). Bring that to mind to keep the tedium at bay.

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