mistakes

I made a mistake on my tank top several rows back, so now I need to frog it. Normally I would just undo the incorrect stitches, but in this case I've got yarn-overs in the wrong places, so I don't think that will work. I am bummed. I had put this project away for a week because I needed some quiet time to work on the front (lots of shaping). I finally had some time on Monday, before L's PT appointment, and I think that's where I made the mistake. There or at my knitting group that evening. That makes more sense, actually, because I wasn't paying as close attention, since we had a swap that night and two new members sitting right next to me.

The mistake is a silly one, and one I should have caught almost immediately. Which is why I think it happened during the knitting group. The shaping is fine, but the placement of the design in the front is off by 3 stitches, and is very noticeable.

Bah. I hate mistakes.

successful swap

My knitting group had a swap this evening. I brought in a box of yarn, and got rid of most of it. I took back a few things, mostly wool that I might use for felting. I tried hard not to take too much. I picked up some black Knit Picks Swish DK, Lion Brand Microspun in white and yellow, a skein of Sugar'n Cream stripes in blue, and a partial skein of pink-purple Rowan Tweed for the Elinor Tunic I'm hoping to knit. And a Minnowknits book. I left with less than I came with, which was my goal.

no knitting, incoming stash

I've hardly done any knitting this week, and it's been frustrating. Knit lots on Monday, but got to a section of my tank top where I really need to concentrate (i.e. no kids, not in the car, not when I'm sleepy, etc.), so it was on hold until the end of the week, except I didn't work on it at the end of the week, so now it's on hold again.

In my search for a project I can pick up easily, I thought I'd make a tank top out of some Caron Cotton Terry I have from my grandmother. I've never knit with the stuff, but it seemed like maybe it might make a decent top; nothing fancy, but good for the summer. First, I spent part of a day looking at patterns, finally found one I liked. Oh, but I didn't have the right length circular needle. Went to Michael's Thursday night; they didn't have it. Went to JoAnn's Friday, and they didn't have it either. Finally went to my LYS Friday afternoon, where I discovered they are having a 20% off everything sale this month. Wheeee!!! (And they had my needle!) Bought some needles, and a few skeins of yarn for good measure. Went home, reviewed my queue in Ravelry, and went back and bought 2 bags of yarn. Yum! One bag was full of Encore, for L's log cabin blanket. The rest is a mix of yarn for specific projects and yarn that just looked fun. In retrospect I realized I got back in my old habit of just buying one or two skeins of yarn because they look neat, when that's probably not going to be enough to do much with. We'll see what happens with it. Among my finds are some Crystal Palace Merino 5 (I bought 2 skeins in the first visit, then another 2 skeins in the second so I'd have more to play with), Noro Kureyon (bought 4 total, in 2 passes; might start Lizard Ridge with them), and Crystal Palace Panda Wool (one skein in 2 different colors, so not for socks).

So what became of my new tank top? I cast on last night, and hated the yarn. I absolutely couldn't knit with it. My cast on was uneven, and I could tell after a single knit stitch that this was going to be a painful project. The yarn is nubby, but they are small, hard nubs, that make it difficult to pull one loop through another. I immediately posted all of the yarn (9 skeins total in several colors) on YarnCycle, and I hope to get it in the mail next week.

Now it's been nearly an entire week with no knitting, but I've been wanting to knit. Finally tonight I cast on for a dog walking mitten for my dad's gf for Christmas. It's not using up stash (I bought the yarn for it yesterday), but it sure feels good to be knitting again.

mindless to mindful

I've been working diligently on my Lacey Vee tank top for a couple of weeks now. Until a few days ago it was pretty mindless knitting: knit in stockinette until you've done 9". Then I got to start a bit of a pattern (ooh, a little purling to do!) Last night I started knitting the back separate from the front, and very suddenly my simple little tank got complicated. I spent some time this morning re-writing the pattern for the back (at least, up to the neckline, where I have to split again for the shoulders) because it started getting too confusing last night. The confusion occurs because I am doing armhole shaping at the same time as armhole edging, and the pattern doesn't give row by row instructions, just how many decreases to do.

While I'm looking forward to getting into some complicated knitting, I think I may need to start another project for some more mindless activity.

June yardage

I've decided to start calculating how much yarn I knit each month. I might go back and calculate for previous months, but for now I'll start with June. A problem I foresee is that because I tend to get almost through a project, then let it rest for a few months, my monthly calculations will be off. I will only calculate yardage for Finished Objects, so even if I did most of the knitting in May, the yardage will count only in the month when I finished the piece.

Yardage for June is...76 yards! Not much, eh? This is from the Nottingham hat I knit for E, although I did quite a bit of knitting on my tank top (probably another 200 yards for that), but I hope to count that next month.

I wonder how many miles I knit in a year. Hmm...better start doing some calculations....