Off task
How is it that the come-hither of new projects is most compelling just when it’s most critical that you finish what you’ve already begun? It should be a law, like Murphy’s. Sarah’s Law of Distractibility, maybe. Barring disaster (and we all know Disaster is skilled at the limbo and the high jump), the Mediterranean Ivy lace is going to be the most beautiful work I’ve ever done. But even the plain rounds take more than an hour at this point. When I was twelve or thirteen, there was a summer I spent with my friends Lizzie and Alice, nearly always in their swimming pool when we weren’t riding our horses through their woods and fields. We trained hard at underwater swimming, one end to the other and back again, hot blackness rising behind our eyes as we strained through the shallows to touch the wall and erupt gasping for oxygen. That’s what each lap of this stole feels like now: push a little further every time, right to the limit of punishment to the eyes and fingers. Five days left to knit, including all the time it’s going to take to crochet a single chain of edge loops.
So what led me to blow all of Saturday morning, the only crafting time I had that day, sewing an oven mitt? (And yes, I forgot to photograph it again when it was finished.)
Good question. It was for Mother’s Day. But that’s not much of an excuse. And still I itch to cast on six new projects. Fortunately, the knitting gods are keeping me on the straight and narrow: I discovered that I’d twisted the join in the Indigo Ripples skirt (which I never do), and that despite (or because of?) my math and swatching it was coming out six inches too large anyway.
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Oh dear! I worried about that join in the INdigo Ripples as well, and kept looking back, the first inch or so, and double-checking. And I didn’t even swatch mine. I do seem to be at gauge, though, but it still seems big. I read that some knitters made the shrinkage work for them, altho’ I’d think that would affect length more than width. I’m debating running a lifeline through mine and checking it out — is that what you did to discover that yours was too large?
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Yeah for mother’s day’s gifts. I actually got to talk to mine on MD since she is normally unavailable.
Boo for Indigo Ripple. I have noticed over the last year of watching bloggers knit this skirt that many have had problems with the skirt being too large and having to rip and then cast on again. Good luck on the second try. It is worth it once it is done.
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 8:55 am
drat on the knitting gods (and goddesses). but i love the mitt. now i want to make a mitt. the quilting lines are really cool all off kilter like that.
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 9:07 am
You are such a trooper on that stole! Each round taking an hour!? Good grief. I’m sure it’ll be stunning though and that your sister-in-law will cherish it. The oven mits are cute 🙂
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
It must be Portland weather – I ripped an entire sleeve of mohair because I had completely forgotten the increases.
The weather should change in a day or two though;)
Posted: May 14th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Did you swatch flat or unflat (meaning, the cheater way where you drape the yarn across the back)? I twisted the join on my black Monkeys several times, even though I also never do that–dark yarn, I guess.
Posted: May 15th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Oh, you have my sympathies on those never-ending final shawl rows. I was nearly driven crazy by them when I was knitting my sister-in-law’s shawl with a deadline steadily approaching. Good luck finishing!
Posted: May 15th, 2008 at 11:25 am
ooooh, I can’t wait to see that lacework finished.
I have that same itch right now, but mine is to start a lace project, and finish the sweater I’m working on!
great mitt!
Posted: May 16th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Dig deep into the suitcase…grab an energy bar…you can make it across the line!! 🙂
Sometimes taking a wee break from the must finish project and doing something else for a bit really does help. Once I started the shrug, it helped me to push more on Caroline. It will be fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk weather here by the time it’s all done and ready to wear, but I *will* finish it.
Posted: May 19th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Oh but the oven mitt is so cute! I can see how it sucked you in.