Restless Knitter

Y’know, all the experts tell you to read through a pattern before you start it. My stitch count isn’t right on row 10. I’ve done it 10 times. What am I doing wrong? If you had read the directions before you started, you’d realize that the pattern has the wrong stitch count. I’m getting gauge, but my sweater is 10 inches wide when it is supposed to be 15. If you’d read the directions before you started, you’d have noticed that by knitting to the stated gauge, your piece will indeed be 10 inches wide. I’ve seamed up my sweater and it has a round neck, but the picture shows a v-neck. WTF? If you’d read the directions, yadda yadda yadda.

I don’t examine a pattern before I start it. Send the knitting police, quick. I might glance over it, like make sure it has directions for a sleeve, a front, and a back but I don’t verify each line’s stitch count, how many stitches to pick up, gauge versus schematics, how the thing is put together… aha, there’s my problem. I’m not a fan of seaming. I know it’s a necessary evil, but it’s boring. Guess what. This shawl is full of seaming. If I had read the directions before I started this, I may have never begun. It was bad enough that I had to make four squares, but now I find out that I’m supposed to knit the edge, then sew it to the squares after they’ve been put together. Why have I not learned to read through the pattern? (Chances are, I still won’t do it in the future.)

If you want, you can see the squares together here. I really should have gotten something dark to put behind it, but I was too lazy to go upstairs and get it. Then I tried messing with the camera settings and that turned out much better on the camera than the uploaded pics. Y’all are used to suffering through my bad picture taking skills anway

First of all, I hate bobbles/popcorns/nipples/whatever you want to call them. Hate hate hate them. I also hate seaming. Well, hate is too strong for seaming, I just dislike it. So why did I choose a pattern that involves bobbles AND seaming? I’d like to think it was to expand my horizons, to have a challenge. But no, it’s really because I wasn’t paying enough attention. Poinsettia, she requires attention. Like when you are getting down to the final stretch, and you see all those rows of just plain knitting and you get excited that you are getting a little break before the next slew of bobbles. You can listen to your husband talk or the boob tube and not concentrate for at least a few rows. It’s bliss. Then you do the 2nd square and those purl rows seem unfamiliar. And you realize you didn’t pay enough attention to Poinsettia and she wasn’t very happy about it. She laughs when you realize you have some garter where some stockinette should be. Now you have to do those GD bobbles again.

Right
Wrong

Waaahh. But dammit, she will not defeat me. Yet.

The Prairie Blanket is finished, though it still needs an end woven in and washed.

Yarn: Lion Brand Pound o’ Love
Pattern: Prairie Blanket from Oat Couture
Needles: US size 9
See that little ball in the middle? That’s not a pompom, that’s how much yarn I had left. I used a small diet scale to weigh the yarn left in the skein and when I got close to it being half the weight, I started the decreases. Towards the top right corner, you can see a loop of yarn that I need to weave in due to a knot in the yarn that just had to show up before it was finished.

Saturday was fun mail day. From Donna, I got 2 baby pattern books, 3 skeins of baby yarn, and the Australian Creative Knitting.

I’ve already got the patterns picked out for the yarns, and several more that I’ll probably have to buy yarn for. In addition to those books, I’d picked up two more last week. One is a Leisure Arts book that I can’t link to because the site is being a pain in the ass. The other is Cozy Knits for Cuddly Babies. (Gotta love those 40% off coupons for JoAnn and Hobby Lobby.) I like Cozy Knits because all the items are made using Cascade yarns. I think I have about 15 projects picked out from all these books. Probably more. Not to mention, I have a Baby Surprise Jacket on the needles.

I’m adding length to the sleeves on this one. This is up to row 40 but I’m a bit farther than that now. Perhaps another day I’ll show pictures of doing it the way it’s written versus adding sleeve length.

Last but not least, I took the plunge and snipped the yarn from the first Poinsettia square. I’m not having near as much reserve about this one. The first one I could barely get through a couple of rows a day but this one I got over half of it done in one day.

I don’t know how people do it without air conditioning. I couldn’t knit if I didn’t have a/c. When I can, I’ll knit outside on the deck but it’s been too damn hot to even look outside, let alone knit out there.  I hope it cools off for WWKIP day.
The first Poinsettia square is done.

It’s not blocked. I can’t bring myself to cut the yarn from the ball yet. I don’t know why I’m having an issue with that. It’s not like I can just continue on. Yet, the thought of having ends to weave in bothers me. Once I get up the nerve to snip the yarn, I’ll get started on the next square.

The Praire Blanket is almost done.

I’d barely got it on the floor before Bella tried to claim it as her own. I got her off of it, but she still declared the corner to be hers.

Now for some pics from our trip to Small Town. There’s always this

I’ve never been there, but I always look forward to seeing that thing along the road.

Here’s a pretty cloud. Too bad there were powerlines in the way

I didn’t get a picture of the sign “Used Cows for sale”. (As opposed to Unused Cows??) But I did get this, just in case you weren’t sure, this sign let’s you know that indeed