It’s Furious Balancing

Even though I didn’t intend for this to be a knitting blog, that seems to be what it’s turning into.¹ I’m not even a very skilled knitter,² so as a “knitting blog,” It’s Furious Balancing is lacking.

I slog along regardless.

It’s a knitting post today. Since I seem to be accumulating a lengthy list of Things To Knit, I thought I’d itemize them, if only because having a list makes me feel like Things Are Under Control. None of these have been cast on, by the way. I want to finish the Ravenclaw Raglan first.³ So, without much further ado, I present Laiane Wolfsong’s List of Things to Knit (Should We Be So Lucky).

1. The Mrs. Darcy Cardigan. I’ve been in love with this pattern since I first clapped eyes on it a month ago.⁴ I’ve already bought the yarn and the buttons, but I haven’t started as much as a gauge swatch yet. One sweater at a time, Laiane. Oh, it’s Cascade 220 in Regency Green. Yes, I’m highly amused that the colorway is apropos. ⁵

2. Yet Another Top-Down Raglan. Malabrigo Sale + 10% Ravelry Discount = Six Skeins of Marron Oscuro. I’m thinking a turtleneck with some waist shaping thrown in for good measure, or perhaps the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, or perhaps something loosely based thereon, or a combination thereof. Yeah, something like that.

3. Absorba the Great Bathmat. Even though I dissed Mason-Dixon Knitting, I do want to try out the log cabin technique and I do want (and need) a new bathmat. I ordered three one-pound cones of Peaches & Crème double worsted⁶ for this project,⁷ with the intention that I will use two strands held together for each panel, mixing up the color combinations to get some variety. The pattern calls for three strands held together, but that would be too hard on my hands. Two held together should be sufficient.

4. The Cephalopod. This will more than likely metamorphize into a cat toy. I’m planning on using Lamb’s Pride Worsted in the Prairie Fire colorway (M181). I started the ‘pod at one point but abandoned it when I took issue with the instructions, or rather, my meager knitting skills took issue with the instructions. It calls for casting 26 stitches onto four double-pointed needles. Once you’ve increased up to 52 stitches, the instructions read “knit til last three stitches on needle 2, then k2tg.” This is all well and good if you can manage an infinitesimally small number of stitches on four DPN’s and have the spatial relations skills to number your needles in your head and keep them straight. Yeah, right, and monkeys will fly out of my… Oh, nevermind.

I can certainly manage four DPN’s when there are a significant amount of stitches involved like, for instance, much more than 26; I’m thinking more along the lines of 80 to 120. Putting a mere 26 stitches onto four DPN’s seems like overkill to me.

I need to re-write the pattern instructions for Those Among Us Whose Spatial Relations Skills Are Teh Suck. It would be easier for me if they read “knit 15, then k2tg,” or however many stitches it comes out to. Another knitter asked if the pattern intentionally used four DPN’s in order to get the spacing/placement of the tentacles correct. It doesn’t appear to, since you pick up stitches for the tentacles after the body is completely knit and off the needles altogether. So, no reason whatsoever for four DPN’s outside of frustrating me and getting me to fling the whole damned thing across the room.

/sigh

I could just suck it up and do it on the four DPN’s, but that’s not as entertaining as complaining about it. C’mon, Laiane, look upon it as “Skill Building.” You’re a big girl. Cope. You love the cephalopod and you get to felt it when it’s done! You love felting. It’s like Messing Up On Purpose. How often do you get to do that?

5. The Saturday Market Bag (with Modifications). I ordered a one-pound cone of Peaches & Crème in navy at the same time I ordered the yarn for Absorba. They sent me double worsted weight instead of regular worsted weight, however. I thought it too much of a hassle to try to exchange it, so I’ll be trying this with heavier yarn than the pattern calls for. This could be one of those “Dismal Failure vs. Learning Experience” dichotomies in the making.

Well, that’s it for my serious Things to Be Knitted List. My actual queue over at Ravelry is 30+ items long.

* * * * *

1. Well, that and a LOLCat collection. I didn’t intend that either, but que sera, sera. [↩]
2. I’m quite envious of the bloggers I read who seem to be able to turn out five sweaters and an afghan in the time it takes for me to finish one sweater sleeve. Yes, Octopus Knits, I’m talking about you. /wink/ I aspire to your level of knitting. [↩]
3. The silver stripes on the sleeves are finished. This top-down raglan sweater-knitting stuff is easy peasy. I should have started with top-down raglans to begin with, but I just had to knit a standard four-piece sweater – with set in sleeves, no less – as my First Sweater Project. That reminds me – I need to finish weaving in the ends for that Sweater and actually WEAR it since we’ve gotten back into sweater-wearing season. [↩]
4. Well, except for those sloppy sleeves, but I’ll tighten up those cuffs. [↩]
5. Please tell me I don’t have to explain this. Mrs. Darcy = Jane Austen = Regency (pre-Victorian) England. Pretty nifty, I think, but I get excited by things like that since I’m a Literature Nerd. [↩]
6. As much as I love buying from the factory directly, their shipping costs are astronomical. [↩]
7. Rose pink, baby pink, and mauve, for the curious. My bathroom is girly-girl pink. Not my choice of ideal bathroom colors, but I’ll work with it. [↩]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.