A jewel to tide me over

Realizing the beneficial effects of having both a large and small project on the needles, I dug through the stash and poked around the queue for a small project last night. The Universe smiled upon me and I found something just right: Just Enough Ruffles scarf which I am knitting up in a pretty pink yarn Melody gave me when we first met.

(Some of you may remember that I started a shawl/wrap with this yarn last year. Long story short, I loved the yarn, goofed on the shawl, thought I could live with the goof, decided I couldn't, frogged it. The yarn has been hibernating ever since...waiting to be reknit into the shawl.)

The yarn is so sproingy! The shawl didn't call for the stockinette that the scarf does, so this has been a fun surprise. This is one of those patterns where there is payoff at the end. The ruffles are set up as you knit, but will not materialize till later. For an ADDish like me, this is a bit tortuous (how will this work? is it going to work? I want to know right now!)

I was thinking as I knit that I am a closeted and dormant ruffle appreciator. I've actually liked ruffles on my clothes since I was a kid. But, sometime during college or right afterward, I stopped wearing them (I had my mom alter an old shirt of my Dad's with my redesign which included a white lace ruffle along a v-neck collar when I was in high school. Man, I loved that short and wore it well into my 20s. That's the last item of clothing with a ruffle on it that I remember wearing.)

Maybe because ruffles are coming back a bit, they are on my radar again. Melody showed me a shawlette she knit that had a ruffled edge in late winter/early spring and I liked the way it looked. I remember having a "huh?" moment because even I had forgotten how much I used to like ruffles.

When I spotted Just Enough Ruffles on my queue, I thought of Melody's shawlette, and then I remembered her yarn. Serendipity.

Raveling again

After months of inattention to my Ravelry account, I've begun to clean house over there in order to spend more time there again.

I decluttered my queue tonight. Added or kept only items I truly want to attempt to cast on in the few months to half a year. The rest of it I made sure to "favorite" to prevent total loss into the ether. (I'm being ambitious/thinking wishfully...there are 24 projects on the queue :-)

I discovered that you can add patterns-for-a-price to a wish list. That's a great idea...I added a bunch :-)

I added Felicity, Cavendish 2 and Hypoteneuse to my Projects page. I had forgotten that my Rav box on the sidebar of this blog shows WIPs (works in progress). If you're on Rav you can click right on the project name and it will take you to the Rav page. Cool :-)

A long time ago, I added my needles to my Ravelry account. I had no idea at the time how useful that page has proven to be. Whenever I ponder a new project, I can go to my 'needle library' and see if I have the needles I would need for the project rather than sift through my various needle storage containers. (Then of course there's the process of ascertaining the correct size of the needles if they are not stored in their original packaging.) I appreciated this as I got myself ready to knit Felicity (my latest FO).

I love scrolling through the projects of my Ravelry friends and favorite designers.

I had fun sharing a project to one of my groups for the first time ever.

I discovered that you can see the profiles of people who have "favorited" your projects.

What a great, great site. I love it.

Felicity round 1: the Universe 1, me 0

But since I am part of the Universe, it wasn't a total loss...

I did it again. I cast on for a new project, meticulously read and re-read the steps of the pattern, realized fairly early on that something was funky...and kept going.

Is it because I am a helpless optimist? Is it because my ADDishness fades back the light on certain types of details? Is it because I'm just an idiot sometimes?

Who knows.

The pattern calls for casting on, joining to knit, a row of purling, and then moving into stockinette stitch. I don't know if it was how I joined my knitting together, or whether I got visually confused with the circular needles, or what, but in order for me to continue into stockinette, I had to keep purling rather than knit.

And I thought that was strange.

Many, many rows later, I thought it was really strange because knitting is so much faster than purling and it didn't make sense that I was purling the hat.

Sigh.

When it came time to increase stitches, 5 1/2 inches from the cast-on edge, I knew I had made a mistake. Back at row #1, probably when I joined. I tried to fudge it, which is what I tend to do. Then, I decided to frog it, which is what I tend to do next.

I took a photo to commemorate. I also wanted to see how the hat fit so far. It fits well, I'm not positive the yarn is the best choice for this hat. The yarn is lovely. A wool and silk blend and the color is brighter and more cranberry than in the picture. I'm going to use it. But, I am also looking forward to knitting this hat again, with a fuzzier yarn. (Up close the knit isn't as 'tight' as I like...the silk helps to create stitch definition which also means the spaces between the stitches are more distinctly visible.)

Pattern: Felicity
Yarn: Cascade Venezia

Muddy momentum

A lotus grows out of mud. I try to keep that in mind.

I still refuse to "get gauge". In a nutshell, "gauge" is how many stitches you need, of your own knitting (some knitters knit tightly, some loosely), to match the number of stitches across and rows down the pattern calls for in a designated measured area.

Most knitters, therefore, will knit a "swatch" of the pattern in order to determine how close they are to "getting gauge". Based on this information you can make adjustments before you begin knitting so that your project will not veer, in size or shape, from the original pattern.

And, for some reason, I won't do it. It probably has to do with my ADDishness. I just want to get on with it. I want to ride the wave of flow rather than running into the water only to remember that I should bring the board back to shore so I can do some math.

I have now knit over 9000 stitches on the Cavendish, but only have about 3000 to show for it on the needles. I would have saved myself hours had I knit up a swatch first. Now I know. I think I am closer to knitting a swatch next time I begin a project.