Aching for Yarn (pink yarn)

I have been having issues with lace weight. Apparently I think I am a master yarner and that I can do anything that anyone else with years of knitting experience can throw down.

I must remember that I have only been seriously knitting for a few months. I must also remember that while I am deft and dexterous at crafts that everything will not come easy.

What? You mean I'm not special???

Oh dear. No one tell my mother. She'll be crushed.

I did buy two types of lace weight yarn with the idea that I am going to make a beautiful lace shawl ala the Yarn Harlot. Please don't laugh. I forget myself. You will be relieved to know that I did remember myself - over and over each time I began again, messed up, and ripped out.

I even chose a relatively easy pattern. I am trying (like hell) to make the Gypsy Rose Scarf. I cast on countless times, and apparently am unable to count to 63, because I always ended up with either too many or too few stitches at the end of one of the first rows. It was maddening. I thought it might be the needles, so I switched from metal to bamboo. Bamboo was worse - the yarn gripped too much. I figured it out finally, that I wasn't getting the pattern because I couldn't see it as well on such skinny yarn.

So to get the hang of the dang pattern, I switched to a worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles. And lo and behold, the pattern finally made sense! I could see the stitches, and I could see what they looked like when I was working the pattern.

So now I have moved down in yarn size. I purchased 2 skeins of Crystal Palace Bamboo Silk in a pretty pale pink color. It came today, and I immediately started working with it. Oh, I am in love! The yarn is so shiny, and so small and smooth that it makes my heart ache. I love it so much that I would marry it if polygamy was allowed in Florida. And I started knitting the scarf:

It doesn't convey the sheen of the yarn, or the way my heart does a little flip-flop every time I touch it. But now that I have the pattern, I am going to make a whole dang scarf out of the fingering weight. Maybe by that time I'll be more comfortable with skinny little yarns, that I'll be able to tackle lace weight and not pull out my hair.

March Madness

Sadly, my March Madness has nothing to do with basketball. Work is crazy, with more and more work being piled on us. And my personal time is spent mostly by working on a writing project that my group is desperately trying to make come to fruition. And what little time I have left over I give to sleep, a little reading, and a little knitting.

I knit to and from work while my husband drives. I knit on my breaks and lunch hours. I knit when it isn't my turn typing with the writers' group. And I knit while I am waiting for my turn in the shower in the mornings.

What am I working on? Mostly still the cinema shawl. I really am glad I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I have knit through three balls this second time around, and I think I have just one mistake. (While I always hope for perfection, I also realize I would not want to incur the wrath of the knitting goddess. Athena once turned a woman's children into spiders because she claimed she could weave better than the goddess.)

I am still working on the shawl. It is getting boring. It is straight garter stitch, and I seem to have fallen into the black hole of knitting of which I have heard other speak. I knit. And knit, and knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knitknitknitknitknitknit. And it never seems to grow, or look like I am getting anywhere close to being finished.

I have no pictures of the shawl, and I fear that there may not be any forthcoming anytime soon. I have to work both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Perhaps when I finally get a day off on Monday I will be able to share photos of my work.

For now, my life seems a blur, and I really hope something will come along soon to let me catch my breath. I'm tired.

Ravelympics completed!

The Olympic officially ended last Sunday, and I finished my Ravelympics project on Saturday. My Kable needle case is complete, and currently housing my 14 inch needles. I am not as pleased as I had hoped. The cables came out lovely, and I like the colors, but the felting did not go as well as I had hoped. I followed the directions carefully too. Maybe I just need more experience with felting. In the directions it told me to weave a length of yarn down both long sides of the piece, and pull them up so they were sort of accordianed. And it worked - on one side. On the other, the yarn broke and the accordian unfolded, and the edge got all rippled.

I have to remind myself that I am still a beginner, and that these things will improve with practice. Which is difficult to do when another part of my brain is screaming, "No! Perfection! Now! NOW!!!"

Sigh. Sometimes being a Virgo isn't so great.

Here is some lovely yarn I purchased:

It is Crystal Palace Merino 5 superwash in the color Violets. (Apparently I am on a purple and green kick as of late.) It is pretty much sock yarn, but I am working on making a shawl out of it. I am using the pattern for the Cinema Shawl from the blog Superknitter. I am using size 9 needles instead of 10.5. I started it last Friday, and I am almost through three skeins of yarn. And what am I going to do? I am going to frog it.

Uch. Such a Virgo.

Why would I do such a thing? It isn't because I don't like the pattern. I do. And it isn't because I don't like the yarn. I certainly do. It is because of all of the stupid mistakes I have made so far. For Lord's sake, this is a garter stitch shawl, and I am dropping stitches all over the place. So now I am going to frog it, start over, and every time I find I have dropped a stitch, I am going to fix it. I need to learn how to do this skill. Si tonight, you will find me ripping up my flawed work to try again.