Thursday, November 01, 2007

Resolution? What resolution?

Yeah, yeah, I've made several resolutions recently, and broken them already.

  1. Blog more often. Kiboshed by illness.
  2. Work every day on Liliana & Smoke Ring. As above.
  3. Not start any more projects until current two finished. Sabotaged by illness.
I've just not been able to cope with any sort of stitch pattern, because my brain is foggy. After spending three hours last week crocheting Liliana, with a net result of minus one round, I decided that it would better to leave off working on anything to which I have an emotional commitment. The experience was so frustrating that I became very depressed and upset. After that I decided that comfort knitting was the order of the day.

Hence James C Brett Marble Chunky and fat circular needles. I now have a new mildly daft hat, most of a pair of mittens (number two needs a thumb & a finger) and the main body of a child's raglan sweater. Sleeves are almost progressing. These items have provided proof of my contrary nature, as if anyone were in any doubt about this.

Recent purchases included Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns and Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I decided to eschew my usual scraps of paper and follow the instructions provided in these books. It would be soooooo simple and straightforward - no brain work required, just read and knit.

Except I didn't bother with any of the crown shapings for the hat, using a three needle cast-off so I could just stop knitting at a point when I got fed up. And the mittens? Well, I decided I wanted trigger finger mittens, and that meant mixing and matching the mitten and glove patterns, using numbers for two different tensions because my mittens were 4 stitches per inch and the 'largest' tension for the glove pattern is 5 stitches. My tension for the raglan is 3.5 stitches, and the book instructions are for whole numbers only. So, I'm using the length measurements for one size and the stitch numbers for another size. And I couldn't decide what kind of ribbing to use, so I've done a provisional cast-on with the intention of knitting on an I-cord edging later which is a suggestion from the book, except now I'm thinking I want a garter stitch border worked so the rows are at right angles to the sweater body and attached as I work, which isn't suggested. Contrary, definitely. At least I didn't spend several hours looking through my pattern collection in order to choose a pattern I could largely ignore.

The Marble Chunky is feels great to knit with, and I think it looks lovely. Pictures soon, once my brain can cope with the extra activity.

*There's a better way of saying that, but my brain can't remember it at the moment.

Nighty-night!

2 comments:

T said...

You can't cope with a stitch pattern but you can modify to the 'nth' degree :D I hope you are feeling better now. Glad you've got some things you're happy with too.

Lindsey said...

Well, you know, there's a big difference between my brain talking to my brain, and my brain telling my fingers what to do ;)