Tuesday 21 October 2014

The Queen of the Land of Half Done

The slipper I'm knitting for my son is just sitting there.  Sitting there staring at me.  It would only cover about half his foot right now.  It's been there for about 2 weeks now.  I feel sorry for the poor thing;  even more so for my boy's cold feet.  The first one of the pair wasn't so difficult to complete. It never is because I am the Queen of the Land of Half Done and my subjects are single slippers and single mittens, and projects still on a set of needles scattered here and there throughout my stash.

On Friday last week I whipped up a mitten.  Just one.  There it is on the laptop. It is yet to have a partner.  I've started its match, but I've already lost interest.  Poor, poor, lonely mitten.

I've been trying to sort out how I ended up ruling over this land.  It comes down to my knitting style.   I like solving puzzles.  I also like to create and not necessarily following all the rules, or for that matter a pattern.  I alter patterns all the time.  Take the little yellow lovely to the left.  I referred to a pattern for the base of the pattern (how many stitches to cast on, how to set up the gusset.)  But the 6 stitch cable up the front was my own improvisation.  It was pretty successful. But now what challenge to add to for the left.  I need to think about that one... and I have no pattern to refer to make the match.  My mistake not to write any of it down.  Now I'm afraid that I won't be able to replicate the mitten with the thumb reversed.  The perfectionist in me coming out.

This is a pattern that rears its ugly little head over and over again:  I improvise or alter a pattern as the creative side of me takes hold and then I find I can't duplicate it and the perfectionist in me just can't be satisfied with the second version.  This is never an issue when knitting a hat or scarf or cowl.  Once those items are finished, if I can't duplicate my changes, then I simply have a brand new, one of a kind item.

So, lesson learned.  I need to start to jot down any changes that I make to the base pattern as I go.  But what about the mitt and that poor little slipper?  The mitten will soon have a left hand partner, but I'll make it without the cable so I still can have a "one of a kind" project, and a completed project at that.  The slippers are almost done.  I'm deconstructing the completed slipper as I go.  I'm nearing the toe shaping, and it's going to be a challenge, but it's getting colder and my boy's feet need to be warm.


Wednesday 8 October 2014

Back at it again and why

So, instead of constantly composing blog entries in my head and never actually entering them, I'm going to try this blogging thing again.

I make an effort to knit every day.  Why not write about it?  Why do I knit? Honestly, for my mental health.  I need to create every day.  I need to use my hands.  The patterning and repetition lends comfort and reduces my stress.  There have been so many studies and articles published on how beneficial knitting is to one's health.  I agree wholeheartedly with that notion.

My Mum, who was a very accomplished knitter and crocheter and taught me to knit, passed away last year after a two year "battle" with lung cancer.  When we found out that she was sick, I turned to my needles for comfort.  At times I wish I could have just stabbed something with those needles, but I didn't.  I created.  I developed a need to knit.  A drive to knit.  Mum lived a 5 hour car trip away.  If I wasn't driving, I was knitting.  It helped to focus the anxiety and the panic of what was inevitable.  Much of what I knitted was frogged.  The process of knitting was tantamount to any resulting product.  It helped to keep me focused, calm, and, most importantly, I think that it gave me a sense of control.  When someone you love is sick and you can't do anything to make it go away, you have a need to have some sense of control.  For some, it's keeping an immaculate house (not me), for others, it's becoming an organizer or tossing themselves into their work (again, not me).  For me, it was honing my skills as a knitter.  I went through phases of focusing on types of stitches.  Cables, then wraps, then lace. And I'd take my knitting everywhere with me.

My Mum couldn't knit when she was at her worst.  The pain in her left side from the cancer made it difficult to hold the needles. I so wish that we could have knit together.  I so wish that she could have gained as much comfort from knitting as I do.

I miss my Mum.  Every day.  I desperately try to find comfort in the sense that creating something from some string and a couple of sticks is a gift that she has given me.  And now I have taught my 10-year-old son to knit.  Neither of us have the speed and consistency in our stitches that my Mum had, but she leaves us with something to inspire to.  And that is a wonderful gift.

Friday 10 January 2014

Lesson Learned

A Happy New Year to you all.

As you can see, I haven't blogged in a while.  It's amazing how discouraging messing up a pattern can be; it's not  something one generally wants to report on.  I think that's the main reason why I didn't keep the updates coming on the mitts. (Not to mention the holidays consuming me). 

Yes, the mittens did NOT quite work out.  The error came with the shaping at the tips.  I knitted, I looked, I tried them on,  I frogged.  I do plan to pick them up again and resume my efforts in design, but now is not the time. Jumping gung ho into the world of design - especially mitten design after not knitting any mittens for 2 years - is not a task to be taken lightly.  I'll need to practice knitting a few pairs from established patterns before resuming the red mittens.  I tucked the mitt aside, needles and all and moved on to other things.

Ah, the other things.  I first knit a 'lacy hat' in Malabrigo worsted.  I just love how the needles slide through the wool like a warm knife through butter.  I find it so difficult to pass by the cubbies of Mal at my LYS without at least touching, squeezing, the hanks.  I love the colourways, too.   This little hat knit up quite easily and the pattern is the Lacy Hat from Classic Elite Quick Knits.  Although the pattern suggests a plain, single coloured yarn, I used the variegated Plena  and I think that it looks nice, though it does look much more pink knitted up, which is not so nice for me!   
The photo (right) doesn't really do the colour any justice.  I blame the camera phone.  

I've also been working on a tea cosy and just finished a silk shawl last night, but I'll blog on those later.

Cheers.