It all started right before Xmas when I finished those socks. You know, the ones I was making for my cousin from the Socks That Rocks yarn that she picked out at Rhinebeck. By the way I gave them to her for Xmas and she loved them but I’ll save the picture for another post. Anyhoo, that project seemed to be my crutch. Socks are my crutch project. I never realized how much of a process knitter that I am but whenever I need something to keep my hands busy, I usually reach for the flavor of the month project which is usually a sock. These last couple of days with nothing to knit has been driving me crazy. I mean I literally sometimes catch my fingers “going thought the motions” even though there are no needles in my hand. It’s spooky.
I used to believe that I was the “finished product” type of knitter. I enjoy speedy projects that give me quick results like hats, mittens, socks, basically all accessories. Maybe that’s why I’ve been a little tepid to try a full fledge sweater. It’s like that ingrain fear that most new knitters feel towards cables. That’s how I feel about sweaters. There’s nothing holding me back but yet and still I keep on implying these self imposed road blocks stopping me from just casting on the doggone thing and get it over with. I figure if I write it down then maybe it’ll give me more motivation to get crackin.
If you can’t tell already, I’m a little frustrated. Like I said in the beginning, I lost my knitting mojo. I’m almost positive that it’s not gone for good but it’s irking the hell out of me. What has led me to believe that my mojo’s gone awol is due to the fact that I cannot get gauge to save my life and everything I try to cast on for comes out very wonky. Case in point, I tried to cast on for a pair of fair isle mittens that I charted from Hello Yarns Pattern. I swatched for two hours straight and I couldn’t get gauge with the yarn weight called for and needles ranging from 5US to 8US. So I
The next day, I figured that what I needed was some inspiration, so with gift card in hand, I headed over to Barnes & Nobles and picked up this book. I wanted to try her toe up sock patterns so badly that I could taste it. I just knew that this was the project for me. As soon as I got home, I decided on using up some Koigu that I had in my stash for the longest. Now you have to understand that in this book, the toe up patterns are for 12 stitch repeat patterns so you can only cast on for a gauge of 8sts or 5sts per inch. Because of the yarn, my goal was 8 stitches/inch. So first I tried with 3’s. Fabric to loose. So I went down to 2’s. Still too loose. Then I had to search for a good 30 minutes for my size 1 addi turbos which had mysteriously fell out of my regular needle bin and into one of my yarn bins. Made a swatch and got a gauge of 7.5 sts/inch. Now I really don’t remember if I have size 0 addi turbos because I’m a majic loop type of gal so I had to break out the dreaded dpns (the horror). So I casted on and I just knew I was going to get gauge. Well guess what? Still freakin 7.5 sts to the freakin inch. (ugh). So around 11:45 last night , I finally surrendered and figured that my mojo must be lost and hopefully it’ll soon find it’s way back home.
In the meantime, I’ve decided to work on all my wayward projects that have just been sitting there all patient like. So right now I’m working on my handspun socks that I’m not too crazy about. But hey, I’ll knit on anything right now so long as I don’t have to ride the trains staring off into space or trying to read over my neighbors shoulder.
By the way, congratulations to Rosi G for scoring some of my handspun. Since I only got all of 3 comments, I’m going to send La Bean and Del some handspun also. Hope you guys had a wonderful Holiday and I wish you all a Happy New Year!
