Restless Knitter

Here’s a picture of the cardigan in it’s final state, may it R.I.P (har!)

I checked the cardi over and found that there was a different dye lot in one of the sleeves. Because I don’t have enough of the same dye lot for the entire sweater, I ripped the whole thing out. I know it seems drastic, but I know I wouldn’t have worn it knowing those discrepencies were there. And I’m really okay with that. I ripped after I calmed down, not in the heat of the moment. I’m surprised really because the thing fit and I would have worn it had it not been for the color issue. I have some CE in white and plan to go through it checking dye lots. If I have enough, I’ll start the sweater again. If anything, I learned some things from the first one, like not to use that darn loop cast on for that curve, so all was not lost. Before I do though, I’m going to work on Poinsettia and the Patons baby sweater I started. They’ve been pretty much neglected since I started the cardigan and are crying for some loving.

I ripped out the ribbing and picked up twice the number of stitches in the curve.

Do I like how it looks where I picked up stitches? Not really, but it’s laying flat so I thought I could live with it. But do you see what I see? Do you see where the dye lot is different in the ribbing? Be thankful you aren’t at my house, there are so many bad words flying around it would make your ears bleed. Why the hell didn’t I see this before? I used the same damn yarn that I used the first attempt. WHY WHY WHY!

Bella is getting better. She went back into the ivy part of the yard by herself last night, with no toys or treats to coax her. This morning she went to the fence to talk to the neighbor, another step in the right direction. I think she’ll be back to her old self by the time another week has gone by.

It took 3 attempts to pick up the stitches before it looked decent. After finally feeling like it was good enough to go forward with, I knit knit knit. And knit some more. However, patience is not one of my better qualities and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I just had to run a line through one side and find out how it was going to fit. It looks like I’m going to be doing some ripping

I didn’t pick up enough stitches on that curve. Dammit.

(I misspelled Sevin dust yesterday. Dammit.)

First a Bella update.  We think a critter came through the backyard mostly because she’s trying to mark her territory with her fancy feet dances.  She normally doesn’t back down from critters but they usually run or fly.  I think something challenged her, maybe a snake or a ‘possum, and it’s scared the shit out of her.  We’re pretty sure neither of our neighbors would do anything and have ruled that out.  Anyone trying to open the gates of our fence would either give up before they ever got them open, or give up because they were making so much noise, so we’ve ruled out strangers in the yard too.

Toys don’t motivate her much into going far out into the grass, so I’ve been using pieces of hotdogs.  It’s the only way to get her to poo because there’s a Bella law that says no taking a poo while on the leash, and I don’t want to force her into the backyard with the leash. I don’t know what the hell is up with that but that’s the way she’s always been since we’ve had her. Aren’t you glad I shared her poo habits?  Anyhoo, this morning I sprinkled some Seven Dust near the areas she’s afraid to go to, thinking maybe that will help mask the scent of whatever scared her, not to mention it will help with the bugs.  It did help a little.  (I wouldn’t let her get close enough to it to inhale or eat it, just so everyone knows I’m not going to poison the dog.) She went out a little farther.  This afternoon, the guys came to mow the yard.  Even better distraction.  These people that she normally only gets to bark at, the WHOLE FRIGGIN’ TIME THEY ARE HERE, she got a chance to go play with.  She almost forgot that there’s supposed to be something scary about the backyard.  (I keep typing backyarN, gah.)  Our friends have a dog that Bella likes to play with so I’ve told The Man that I think it would be good to borrow him for a little bit.  Let her see him back there playing and having fun.

I’m frustrated with myself and the cardigan.  Why do I always choose things that frustrate me?  I mean, I know it’s because I like the challenge, but when I get to the challenging part I get pissed and wonder what the hell I was thinking.  The cardigan I’m making is here.  The challenge is picking up stitches all the way around.  I can pick them up fine on straight edges, but that curved edge is driving me up the wall!  I used the loop cast on to increase for those curves on the front and now I’m regretting it.  I can’t say for sure that another method would have been better but I know this one is driving me nuts.  And having the whole edge of the sweater on a circular that isn’t long enough to gracefully handle all those stitches isn’t helping.  Ugh!  I’m not going to give up, I just needed to set it down for awhile and bitch about it.  Next time I post, it will be to bitch about the crochet edging.