One More Month...
Racing season starts in a month, and I'm wondering if I'll be able to separate my seasons like I thought I would. I've grown considerably more addicted to the knitting over this nearly-past winter. The weekends that it's not my turn to drive the truck, I'm usually takin' a nap in the back because layin' down and not looking around is the easiest way to avoid that sick-ish feeling from riding down the highway when I can't see out. The knitting addiction has me seriously considering a Dramamine habit so that I can knit during the hour's worth of travel time.
I've read a couple books lately that have made me kinda ballsy; they say that all knitting is composed of only two stitches, the knit and the purl; and if you can do those, you can knit up anything. After alternating my "down time" between actual knitting and reading about knitting, I'd come to the conclusion that I'd about as well take a shot at some fascinating pattern that looked almost out-of-reach. I still really want to try my hand at a Boobie Scarf (like the ones that Robin made), but even with one to look at, I can't quite make sense of the printed pattern just yet. I found another interesting scarf that looked really cool and had a pattern that looked like something I could follow.
Or, well, it looked almost easy enough once I'd finally convinced myself that I don't have the skills to read all the K4, sl1, p3's and picture what the scarf should look like and that I should just get started, follow the directions, and watch it all unfold before my eyes... Yeah, right, like anything is ever that simple.
So, after several read-through's, I decided to cast-on those twenty stitches and see about gettin' started. I ended up casting-on three times all together; which may have been a sign of things to come. The end starts with a triangle pattern; and though I was following the pattern of knit-turn-slip-purl, I lost count once and started all over, then I wasn't sure if I'd lost count or not and couldn't tell how to figure it out, so I started all over again. On the third try, it worked out alright and I have this hangin' on my needles:
Once I'd convinced myself that yes, that was what it was supposed to look like, I moved on to the next section of the pattern, which involved the words "Break Yarn..." Gasp! Seriously? Okay, maybe I am a little up-tight, maybe I do border on OCD; the feeling I got from being told to "Break Yarn" was akin to being told to rip pages out of a book! After reading that I should "be brave" and not worry about making mistakes and to just try it; I cut off the blue-green yarn just like that.
I knew that I'd picked a pattern that took three different colors of yarn; but still, maybe the act of cutting the yarn without tying any knots was what shorted my circuts... The first step in joining in the new strand of the other color was a "pfb." Now, when I was sittin' here at the computer, at work, with no yarn and no needles anywhere nearby and just reading through the pattern, I had a perfect mental picture of how "purl into front and back of stitch" would work. I'd read a little bit about it in one of those books, I had a stitch dictionary where I could take another look, but I really thought it would be no-big-deal once I had the needles in my hands.
That was about nine O'clock.
Shortly after the ten O'clock news had finished up and Letterman had been on a good while, I was still fighting with it. One little increase of a stitch, and it was kickin' my ass. I don't have a clue how many times I tried to make it work; I either ended up with three or four loops on the right instead of two, or dropping the whole thing, or thinkin' I had it and then it would all come apart when I tried to move the needles. I was seriously considering just giving the whole thing over to the cat, since she could thrash up the yarn just the same as me, when I realized it was after eleven and I still had to work the next morning.
When I was finally irritated enough to put it down and go to bed, I had one wore-out loop of blue-green yarn and about six inches of worn-frazzled yellow yarn, and I'd probably screwed up one corner of that triangle I was so happy to have accomplished. I wish I had somebody who could just lean over my chair, rest their arms on my shoulders and "pfb" right in front of my face a few times so I could see how it's supposed to go in real-time; but I don't think I know anyone who'd do that (or anyone who lives close enough, anyway).
I Googled for it this morning as soon as I got to work, and I found a site with some really nice big pictures -- so now I'm itchin' to get home and try it along with the pictures and see if I can make it work now. I'll probably be useless at Church tonight 'cause I can't get it off my mind, and I've thought a time or two about gettin' some twine off the shipping rack and tryin' it with some pens or pencils or somethin'.
That's how bad the knitting addiction is; I guess it's a good thing I never tried any kind of drugs.
And I ain't even gonna mention the hundred-and-sixteen skeins of clearance sale yarn that I've carried home in the last couple weeks; except to say that Clay's the best 'cause he doesn't say a single word about it. ;)
More later... _\,,/
I've read a couple books lately that have made me kinda ballsy; they say that all knitting is composed of only two stitches, the knit and the purl; and if you can do those, you can knit up anything. After alternating my "down time" between actual knitting and reading about knitting, I'd come to the conclusion that I'd about as well take a shot at some fascinating pattern that looked almost out-of-reach. I still really want to try my hand at a Boobie Scarf (like the ones that Robin made), but even with one to look at, I can't quite make sense of the printed pattern just yet. I found another interesting scarf that looked really cool and had a pattern that looked like something I could follow.
Or, well, it looked almost easy enough once I'd finally convinced myself that I don't have the skills to read all the K4, sl1, p3's and picture what the scarf should look like and that I should just get started, follow the directions, and watch it all unfold before my eyes... Yeah, right, like anything is ever that simple.
So, after several read-through's, I decided to cast-on those twenty stitches and see about gettin' started. I ended up casting-on three times all together; which may have been a sign of things to come. The end starts with a triangle pattern; and though I was following the pattern of knit-turn-slip-purl, I lost count once and started all over, then I wasn't sure if I'd lost count or not and couldn't tell how to figure it out, so I started all over again. On the third try, it worked out alright and I have this hangin' on my needles:
Once I'd convinced myself that yes, that was what it was supposed to look like, I moved on to the next section of the pattern, which involved the words "Break Yarn..." Gasp! Seriously? Okay, maybe I am a little up-tight, maybe I do border on OCD; the feeling I got from being told to "Break Yarn" was akin to being told to rip pages out of a book! After reading that I should "be brave" and not worry about making mistakes and to just try it; I cut off the blue-green yarn just like that.
I knew that I'd picked a pattern that took three different colors of yarn; but still, maybe the act of cutting the yarn without tying any knots was what shorted my circuts... The first step in joining in the new strand of the other color was a "pfb." Now, when I was sittin' here at the computer, at work, with no yarn and no needles anywhere nearby and just reading through the pattern, I had a perfect mental picture of how "purl into front and back of stitch" would work. I'd read a little bit about it in one of those books, I had a stitch dictionary where I could take another look, but I really thought it would be no-big-deal once I had the needles in my hands.
That was about nine O'clock.
Shortly after the ten O'clock news had finished up and Letterman had been on a good while, I was still fighting with it. One little increase of a stitch, and it was kickin' my ass. I don't have a clue how many times I tried to make it work; I either ended up with three or four loops on the right instead of two, or dropping the whole thing, or thinkin' I had it and then it would all come apart when I tried to move the needles. I was seriously considering just giving the whole thing over to the cat, since she could thrash up the yarn just the same as me, when I realized it was after eleven and I still had to work the next morning.
When I was finally irritated enough to put it down and go to bed, I had one wore-out loop of blue-green yarn and about six inches of worn-frazzled yellow yarn, and I'd probably screwed up one corner of that triangle I was so happy to have accomplished. I wish I had somebody who could just lean over my chair, rest their arms on my shoulders and "pfb" right in front of my face a few times so I could see how it's supposed to go in real-time; but I don't think I know anyone who'd do that (or anyone who lives close enough, anyway).
I Googled for it this morning as soon as I got to work, and I found a site with some really nice big pictures -- so now I'm itchin' to get home and try it along with the pictures and see if I can make it work now. I'll probably be useless at Church tonight 'cause I can't get it off my mind, and I've thought a time or two about gettin' some twine off the shipping rack and tryin' it with some pens or pencils or somethin'.
That's how bad the knitting addiction is; I guess it's a good thing I never tried any kind of drugs.
And I ain't even gonna mention the hundred-and-sixteen skeins of clearance sale yarn that I've carried home in the last couple weeks; except to say that Clay's the best 'cause he doesn't say a single word about it. ;)
More later... _\,,/
Labels: Knitting
posted by Debbie at 11:42 AM
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