finally awake

Posted on | March 16, 2010 | 15 Comments

Why oh why do we persist in changing our clocks?!?!  Admittedly, falling back and gaining an extra hour in the mornings is nice, but not worth the bleary-eyed fog brought on by springing forward!

Anyway … hi!  Hope you guys have been coping better than I have!  My post today will be random to match my scattered brain.

I finished the gorgeous green batts from Lynn:

I forgot to count the yardage, but I’m guessing it’s between 400-500 yards – enough for socks and then some!

The knitting goddess has continued to thwart me.  Friday night I wanted something simple and easy, so decided to knit a Backtus scarf and grabbed a 114 gram skein of handspun singles.  Wound the yarn by hand because I was glued to the sofa and cast on.  Took it to the guild meeting Saturday where I ripped back 10″ of knitting and started over.  Apparently I cannot talk and competently knit a 4 row repeat!  Worked on it off and on Saturday and Sunday (ripping back yet AGAIN because I kept making the increases on the wrong side).  Finally wised up and put a safety pin on the increase edge.  Knit, knit, knit, knit, knit until last night when I thought it was long enough and went to weigh the remaining yarn so I’d know when to begin the decreases.

The scale didn’t say 57 grams as I expected.  It said 44 grams. There might’ve been cursing.

Sigh.  More ripping.  It will become a striped Backtus someday (alternating with white, I think), but right now it’s going to the back of the yarn closet to be dealt with another day.

And now I don’t know what to knit.  We’re headed to Tennessee to do some hiking later this week (no, we are NOT going back to the bat house!) and I’ve been consumed with the idea that I need to have the ultimate hiking vest to wear on the trip (the ultimate hiking vest would have lots of pockets – two pockets large enough to hold a hat in one and gloves in the other – and possibly a hood – and maybe some chest-level small pockets for Kleenex and various other tidbits I like to keep handy).  I asked SB on Sunday if he thought I could knit a vest in five days and he laughed and laughed.  What? I thought it was perfectly reasonable.  I mean, I’d have to use larger needles of course, 8s or 9s probably, and if I knit it in the round and steeked the armholes … IT COULD BE DONE!!!  I’M CERTAIN OF IT!!!

But, here it is Tuesday and there’s no way it can be done considering that I haven’t actually started on it (I was wasting all that time knitting Backtus, you know).  So now I have no idea what to knit or what to take to knit.  There’s always socks … but blah.  I am not feeling socks right now.

Any ideas?  Anyone else decide at the last possible moment that they want to knit a specific project on an impossibly tight deadline?  Or is this my own special brand of crazy?!?!  (I’m thinking not).

Category: spinning, Up-n-croaked

Comments

15 Responses to “finally awake”

  1. Lynn in Tucson
    March 16th, 2010 @ 9:03 am

    Hello, sock yarn!

    ;-)

    I can’t TELL you how relieved I am to hear you say that about the Baktus. I did the lacy version and I think I ripped as much as I knit for the first third of it. I was really happy to see it done.

    How about a cowl?

  2. Robyn
    March 16th, 2010 @ 9:05 am

    I’ve been doing some frogging on my end too, realized I had an error in the sweater that I’ve been knitting, I didn’t match up the front as I did the back (oops!)

    I think the time change messed me up too… I overslept this morning, oops!

  3. Sandy
    March 16th, 2010 @ 9:25 am

    I’ve been experiencing the same “meh” feeling about what to knit next. I wonder if maybe the Olympic knitting gave us a case of burnout?

    Your yarns are beautiful. Take your time, the urge will strike again. For now, enjoy some time to read, hike and relax. :D

  4. Marie
    March 16th, 2010 @ 10:16 am

    That’s a terrible feeling – wanting to knit something but then again not being successfully engaged in anything!

    Yesterday I spent some time organizing my patterns, swatches, yarn store returns, needles etc. and I feel all fresh and refocused.

  5. Bubblesknits
    March 16th, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

    I loathe, loathe, LOATHE Springing Forward. I’m still messed up from it and so are the kids. ::grumble::

  6. Linda
    March 16th, 2010 @ 12:45 pm

    I suggest a garter stitch shawl or wrap of some sort. It’s a far cry from socks, relatively thought free knitting and can highlight a beautiful yarn.

  7. Tina M.
    March 16th, 2010 @ 1:13 pm

    Shawlette, definitely a shawlette. Just not Batkus. How about Travelling Woman?

  8. Cookie
    March 16th, 2010 @ 2:19 pm

    Lovely spinning. I’m sorry the knitting isn’t working out. Blame the time change. ;^)

  9. Cheryl S.
    March 16th, 2010 @ 3:04 pm

    Oh dear. I must admit to having the same problems with the 4-row repeat while gabbing, and I also needed to have a safety pin on the increase side. It was actually easier to knit the striped version, because you always did the increases/decreases with the same yarn.

  10. Brenda
    March 16th, 2010 @ 4:56 pm

    I am envious of the hiking trip. Here in Ontario – on Georgian Bay – the woods still have snow so no hiking yet. I say socks. Big Fat hiking socks.

  11. Becky
    March 17th, 2010 @ 6:17 am

    I completely agree about the time change. Why can’t we just stick with one time all year? As for the last minute knitting, I know myself well enough to know how slow a knitter I am so I never entertain ideas that I can get something big done in a short amount of time. It’s taken me YEARS to figure this out. I guess I’m slow in other things, too.

  12. jen
    March 17th, 2010 @ 7:14 am

    Lovely yarn, as usual! I don’t know what a Backtus scarf is, but it looks really pretty. I’m guessing you’re going to rip it because if you continued there wouldn’t be enough yarn and it would be too short? That sucks, but I’ve done it a few times myself.

    Maybe you could use it to knit bowl cozies you could take camping in case you ate some hot gruel or something. You could crochet some in a snap!

  13. Laurie
    March 18th, 2010 @ 6:01 pm

    No, you aren’t the only one. I end up bringing mindless stuff no matter how much planning I’ve done. I used to think that 2 wks of planning was far enough ahead. That isn’t true when you can’t find X yarn in your stash for Y project. I end up with socks…scarf….baby blanket…Cowl is a good idea. Mittlets. Mittens.

  14. Rachel
    March 19th, 2010 @ 10:12 am

    Beautiful colors in that hand-spun! Hmmm…I received some amazing hand-spun recently from a friend and have been trying to figure out what to do with it…I thought I’d settled on Backtus but since I don’t think I have even the yardage you have, maybe not (though I never thought of the striped version).

    Though you may have already left for your trip, I’ll throw in an opinion. I agree with Sandy to just use the time to relax, read, or enjoy your surroundings. If that doesn’t work for you, what about worsted weight socks? Different enough that maybe they won’t feel like socks and you could use them on your next hike. Linda put out a pattern recently that is beautiful: Rippled cable slouch socks. Check them out! And have a blast in the woods!

  15. Rurality
    March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:08 am

    I had to look up what type of scarf that was, but it’s a cool idea. I love the colors you use – very pretty.