The thneed is dead, long live the ?............

At first the joke was funny...........

I had to start a sock because the thneed had had to become a shut-in and while we don't like to use the word chubby in this house, if the shoe fits.......

Then other people started making their "funny, ha-ha" comments - "good lord what are you making there? A new cover for the camper!"......

Remember how I mentioned I may run out of yarn because I am one ball short well unless someone is stealing in in the middle of night and running off an extra ball or 7 well then..... I am much more short than that let me tell ya.

Then I slipped into my state of denial that creativity can overcome all, think how great it will look with different colour sleeves! Gorgeous! Except as a more experienced knitter I had a niggly feeling that all may not be right.

Then I pulled the damn thing over my head and it fit like a sleeping bag.

Oh damn. My knitting mojo is off at the moment.

Remember those bright days of the cable down raglan. Headed for the frog pond as we speak -again. It turns out the yarn was so unbelievably wrong and not just because it isn't gray. A total beginners mistake. And yes I swatched like mad, just maybe I was a little blind with the swatches. Because it is like right in front my nose wrong. Like drive everyone at knit night crazy with the is it wrong kind of questions, wanting deep down for someone to confirm what it is I know but don't want to admit.

Jo Sharp Mohair Tank - frog pond. You haven't even seen this one. This one has been sitting in the dryer (oh yeah I keep my WIP's in an antique dryer that we use as a side table in the study, it is funny no one seems to think it strange we have a dryer as a side table but all have been taken back by the knitting and yarn inside it; muggles). Anyway it is sitting in the dryer waiting for me to wake up and smell the coffee. The yarn is great, it was a gift from the Yarns in the Farms Knit Night when I left (they are all so nice, seriously, go there) but the pattern just turned out all wrong. I kinda look like a sausage in it. I don't look good as a sausage.

And now the thneed..............

So last night as I got into bed totally despondent I said to Ted "all my knitting sucks, how can I still make all these silly mistakes, what's the point, I suck, maybe I should take a break.........."

To which he answered "maybe you should".

"No I mean really take a break, like no knitting kind of break, like NONE"

"Yeah maybe you should"

"No really, like put away the knitting, I am not joking, NO knitting"

"Yep I know"

And then sadly "but what would I do with myself? How would I stay busy?"

And I guess that is the crunch isn't it. I love to knit. I love the busyness of the act. I love how at all times I am a useful, creative being. But what if I am no longer useful? What if what I make has become so inconsistent that most of the time I am just wasting time? Should I stop? I wanted Ted to tell me not to be mad and of course I should keep knitting but maybe he said the truth. Maybe I do need a break. What do you think? Do I really want you to tell me the truth or do I just want you to talk me into carrying on? I don't know.

What do you do when/if you get to this place?

Dumb Jumper

Another good thing about going away, it gave me lots of time to knit.
Lots of time to finish one certain pair of socks.
Lots of time to figure out what was wrong with the Cable Down Raglan.
And lots of time to completely frog it and start again.

I was unhappy with how the Cable Down Raglan was working out but not quite enough to frog it. Then I found myself avoiding it and pretending we weren't friends and I knew the time had come. When we went away I took only 2 projects, the socks and the jumper, so I would have to take care of them both.

The socks were sorted out first. I didn't bring enough warm socks so I would have the extra incentive to finish them, cunning ain't I? Oh the games I play (and win) against myself!

Then the Cable Down Raglan. After giving it some thought I made the necessary changes (in how the increases were done, the position of the side cables and starting the front cable earlier so it wasn't quite so bumpy) in the pattern and picked up the needles and started again. By the end of the trip I was back at the beginning. I mean I was back to where I was when I started the trip. Confusing. But you know what I mean right? And it looks good. Much much better. And I am happy with it. But now I have hit a wall on it. We need a break. Let me tell you how I have handled that one next time.

(No photos. This jumper is shy that way, all photos look drab. You will have to wait until we have a little more to show)

Me, me me.......it is all about me..........

I once left a knit night after it was noted that since most of my projects were for myself, I was a selfish knitter. I never went back.

So how many projects should you do for others and how many for yourself?

My 3 year old noted the other day when I cast on for another jumper for myself that "Mum's should only make things for their daughters not for themselves". To give her credit she is so wrapped in my hand knits that she was trying to push ahead in the queue (she is after Ted, who is now after me).

I would say about 50% of my projects are for myself, maybe more. I don't see much wrong with this but sometimes in certain knitting company I keep this to myself. I am after all the one who knits the item. I feel like I give alot of myself in most other parts of my life, do I have to in knitting as well? Why should there be so much guilt spread about about knitting for one's self? In fact I say if all I wanted to do was knit for myself then why is that wrong? I knit to knit not to really wear so if what gives me fever are things for myself so what? Is this just aimed at women? Are male knitters given the same pressure? How about knitters without partners? kids? This holiday season I knitted nothing for gifts. Shocked? The last holiday season I went all out and burnt out, this one I decided instead of "all" I would go "nothing". It was a good decision for me and I may make it a tradition.

So yes I have cast on for another me-me-me project. I pushed in line. I had a knit that couldn't wait. I cast on for the Cable-Down Raglan from the latest Interweave Knits. I thought I had the perfect yarn right in my stash. A gorgeous soft heathery green from Jo Sharp. Now this came as a surprise to me but reverse stockinette has a profound ability to make even delightful yarns look like crap. I went through the stash like a madwoman, swatching like a demon and had one failure after another. Given my commitment to working down my stash I was getting worried. What I need I thought is a good old fashioned yarn and then I remembered this. Brown won't work I declared but lets try it for the hell of it and guess what it did. It was crisp and solid. And I loved the warmth of the brown. And it is as cheap as chips. All up this jumper will cost me about $24 NZ dollars (less than $20 US or about 2 Euros, not really but it feels that way when I do the exchange on the NZD). Of course the gauge was off so it required a little bit of fancy footwork. I reworked the math, made the original cast on a little smaller since it is the neckline and all was well. The wool is slightly itchy but I am assured by those in the know that it softens up like a dream once washed and worn. This is planned as a winter jumper anyway so I will always have long sleeves under it. Because it is brown I am having the damnest time getting the cables to show up in the photos so this is my best shot.