Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Sometimes the pattern, sometimes the yarn

You know what it's like when you see a gorgeous pattern and just have to knit it, right?  You either buy yarn for it or look through your stash to see what will work, and get to work.  But sometimes, you have amazing yarn, and you want to knit it as quickly as possible so you default to an obvious purpose, like 'sock yarn  = socks' - and the yarns says NO.


I am too beautiful.  I must be seen.  Find the right purpose for me and then we'll talk Pattern.

Which is how I ended up casting on 148 stitches to a 2.25 mm needle.  Yes.  2.25mm.


2.25mm Addi Turbo LACE TIP needles.  I know capitalization is shouty but in this application we are looking more at shrieky because Owie!  Lace tips are are quite sharp.

Here are all 148 stabby stitches.


Here they are again with a big arrow showing how far back I had to go when I realized I had messed up the K2P2 ribbing on round one and done a K3 where no K3 ought to be.


Guess what happened next?  After I ripped back and reknit within ten stitches of the end-of-round marker, I realized I had done it again!

Turns out it is amazingly difficult to keep track of K2P2 ribbing when you have been on a long run of socks with K1P1 ribbing at the top.  You're always either overcompensating or undercompensating or, if you are using lace-tip needles, wishing you could remember where you put the thimbles and getting distracted in general.

The first two rounds are the worst though, really.  Once you've established your ribbing, it's more likely you'll notice the odd mis-step and repair it on the next round.  Or if you have a Biscuit, you can have her check your work for you.


Still.  It takes a long time to get through 148 ribbing stitches...


... especially when you were aiming to work through about 22 rounds of them.  I have a long way to go, don't I.

Well - tell you what, you go have a wonderful rest of the day, and I'll keep knitting, and tomorrow I'll show you something else to distract you from the fact that I am secretly falling over from numb bewilderment as I ask myself, What was I thinking??

Take care and I'll see you then!


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