Frenzy of housecleaning yesterday. Floors waxed, boxes unpacked, dark spaces between furniture and walls investigated, stored clothes aired and refolded. That is, all those things would have gotten done if I weren't a mere evolutionary step removed from a raccoon distracted by tinfoil and gotten all sidetracked by any and everything that seemed marginally more interesting than changing the filter in the range hood.
I think this was my first finished object ever. I've been knitting for at least fifteen or twenty years, since I was a wee small kid - I have vivid memories of trying to figure out how to fix a dropped stitch in the blanket I was making for a baby doll I had - but I had this bad habit of never finishing anything. At fourteen, I'd blow my allowance on Wool-Ease and overdue fees from the library; at sixteen I'd blow my Starbucks paycheck on Rowan magazines and that beautiful 4-ply botany wool they used to produce; at eighteen I discovered Noro. I've probably started hundreds of projects, knitting and ripping and rewinding until the poor yarns waved white flags of destroyed elasticity and fiber fatigue. Thus it was that a lot of self-manufactured fanfare went along with my finishing this sweater, on a trip to California, four or five years ago.
Too bad I don't care for it at all. It's from a Jaeger pattern book, in that peculiar papery silk/cotton/polyamide Trinity yarn (my first - and last - impulse to spend big money on manmade fiber). Nothing about it is right for me - it's too short; the cable panel down the middle and the high neck aren't flattering; the knitting isn't smooth or even; the fabric is fairly delicate. But, I knit this before I believed in blocking (forgive me, O blocking sprites!), so I'm hoping a soak and aggressive pinning will even things out and give it a bit of fluidity in addition to correcting the size issues.
I found my Flower Basket Shawl, too, crumpled in a heap on top of one of my bookcases. It was in a bad way:
I didn't block it enough before, and the spring in the yarn (100% wool, if I recall) had drawn it in to become a lumpy little mess. Another sacrifice at the altar of T-pins and Woolite:
Much better.
I know I've pimped this before, but the Yarn Harlot's lace blocking method is genius. Fewer pins, straighter edges, less making of the crazy.
I've gotten a lot done on the Union Square pullover, too - the body is blocking, and I've started the sleeves.
Speaking of which, do you think the bell is a little too big? They're beautiful and graceful and all, but I fear it won't be quite so elegant when the cuffs fall in the spaghetti sauce or knock over a glass of wine or simply give a general effect of a little girl trying on her mom's fur coat. I'm thinking of taking the suggestions from some of the good ladies at the Union Square Knit Along and modifying it for a cuff caston of 72 stitches rather than 92. I was looking forward to knitting a pattern exactly as written - and this is a well-written, interesting pattern, indeed - but I guess it's not to be.
I'm working on my Craftster shrug, too:
I'll block the bejeebus out of this to even the cables and give the thing drape. No chunky knits, ever!
