Saturday, May 20, 2006

Bad knitting attitude

Actually, my bad attitude today went beyond knitting. I'm feeling stymied and I'm not really sure why, but it came out as "I must FINISH something today!" Yesterday I started a mindless knitting project using ladder yarn that I got on sale, and after about three hours of work yesterday and today I frogged it all. I like it better now, but I feel like I wasted a bunch of time (although I really didn't--I wouldn't have worn the finished item as it was) and I wasn't getting any closer to FINISHING anything.

I have my Lucy Bag that needs to be dyed and felted, and I finally have all the dyes to do it. I just have to mix them up into stock solutions (which I'm not sure my puny brain can handle just now).

Then there's the Mirror Mirror scarf that isn't progressing, probably because I'm not working on it.

And of course there's the Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl which is languishing in its bag, untouched for months now. I don't know why but I just don't want to work on it. Actually, I DO know: it's the yarn. It's from handpaintedyarn.com's ebay site, and I guess I've been spoiled by KnitPicks yarn because the handpaintedyarn.com (referred to as HPY from here on) yarn is single ply, a bit slubby, and not the best wool, while the KP merino lace yarn is merino, double ply, and very evenly spun. Plus, the variegation in the HPY yarn totally distracts from the lace. Sigh.

Then there are the Christmas stockings which STILL aren't finished. I keep telling myself that I can put those off until Christmas. Besides, if I did manage to finish them they'd probably get lost and not found until after Christmas anyway. At least in their unfinished state I know exactly where they are.

I did manage to finish a baby dress for Rachelle, but it only needed blocking and a button sewn on. I'm also working on the crocheting on a scarf pattern, The Emperor's New Scarf, but I'm not happy with the way the yarn ends are showing on the wrong side. I'm used to being able to weave in ends invisibly, but NOT in this case. Maybe if there was less contrast between the main scarf color and the trim color it'd be easier, but I just don't like it. I don't have any solutions though.

Here it is from the front, which is tres cool, with a shot of the back which is not so cool:


The colors aren't quite right, but you can get the general idea.

I started some filet crochet curtains for my aunt, but after two rows I remember that I hate working with small yarn and small crochet hook for long periods of time and that this is NOT a good project for me right now. Well, maybe "hate" is too strong, but I'm just not in the mood for that kind of project right now.

So (like a crazy woman) since I don't have any projects that are close to finishing, I had some Lion Brand Watercolors yarn, just a single ball, and a bootie pattern that was supposed to use almost one ball.

Perfect, I thought, I'll be able to start and finish something TODAY! And I actually DID manage to do both booties today. No, I'm not trying to announce anything--these will be going to charity.

They really aren't as lopsided as they look in this picture! They are identical but I must have messed with them when I was arranging them because they sure don't look the same!

Now I need to block the knitted doily I did last week so that I can take pictures of it. I haven't blocked something like that before so it might be interesting. Stay tuned for later developments....

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