Yeah, Okay, So I Just Disappeared

For about a month, I'm in this position where blogging is not as easy as it has been -- particularly not the uploading of photos . . .

And only because I know *someone* will ask, please have no worries! I and mine are perfectly well. This reason for the difficulty blogging is (except for the lack of blogging) a good thing -- a great thing!

But it has nothing to do with knitting, so I won't go into it.

As for knitting, Posy is at about 80% completion.

So I do have something to show for the time.

Toldja

See?

Just a bunch of garter stitch:




(More Mason-Dixon baby bibs and burp cloths.)

I'm in the mood for some Posy.

I Would Blog . . .

. . . but it's just more garter stitch.

Don't Do That

Right.

So.

I was trying fidelity.

For one project.

To see how it feels.

Yeah . . .

About that . . .

I don't know if the problem is that I hit some "Noro Wall," or what.

Probably it had something to do with getting cocky on block 15, taking it to game night, and having to rip out over half of it afterwards.

Probably it had even more to do with the fact that I was now "supposed" to be working on Lizard Ridge.

You may have figured out that I don't like doing what I'm told -- even if it is me who is doing the telling.

Whatever the reason, I now know how fidelity feels.

It feels bad.

Really, really bad.

It's like the joke.

A man walks into the doctor's office.

Says to the doctor, "It hurts when I do this."

Doctor says, "Don't do that."

So I cheated all weekend. (Doctor's orders.)

Cheated so much that maybe it isn't really even cheating anymore. (Technically speaking, you can't cheat if you are separated. Right?)

First, I finished up those felted coasters that I started all those months ago. (My second-oldest unfinished object.)




I had put them through the wash many, many times. Some of the coasters were in a pretty nice state, but others were still under fulled, unevenly fulled, etc.

I finished them up by hand in the kitchen sink, which generally is full of dirty (and beyond dirty) dishes, but I had been a very, very good girl. (Except for the cheating.)

They turned out great.

Not that I can understand why anyone would actually want felted coasters, even ones made out of Kureyon.

Shrunk by almost 25%:





It really does look like felt:



!!!

And I am willing to considering making another felted / fulled project, which is more than I could have said a week ago.

After the coasters, I picked up something I started ages ago as a swatch.

It has over time gradually increased in size, but until now has always flown under the project radar. (I work on it so occasionally that I never remember it exists when I enumerate my unfinished projects.)




Lots and lots of garter stitch, in a self-striping fingering weight wool. (Similar to JoJoLand Melody, but by a company called Yarn Treehouse.)

Frankly, I'm not sure what this thing is.

Probably it will be a shawl of some kind.

I suppose it could be a blanket instead.

Ladders Wash Out!

Remember THESE?

Yes, they've grown on me.

I think the problem was all a matter of expectations.

I saw bright, saturated, gardeny colours in the skein.

I expected bright, saturated, gardeny colours in the sock.

I didn't get them.

So it took me a while to get used to what I actually had.

Which was, as advertised by the name of the colourway, bloodstone.

You, know, like THIS.

Remarkable similarity.

And now I do like them.

Although still not as much as I would probably have liked the Kryptonite colourway I forwent for those bright, saturated, gardeny colours.

So, although I'm coming at it from a different angle, I completely agree with Erika: A pre-purchase visual of the expected end product would be most helpful to the consumer.

Anyway . . . you may recall that I had heard a rumor that ladders wash out, and that I was going to test that hypothesis with a little experiment.

It's true! It's true!

They do! They do!

Ladders wash out!

Proof:

1.) Test ladder, pre-washing:




Obvious laddering.

2.) Test ladder, after one washing:




Still there (that slight space after the first three *full* stitches), but not at all obvious. Completely wearable.

Please note that most of the difference in colour between the first and other photos is not due to fading. I lost a smidge of colour in the wash, but most of the difference is due to lighting.

3.) Test ladder, after three washings:




Damned if I can see it. Where it used to be is after the first four full stitches.

(You can see that I'm pretty hard on my socks. I put them through the dryer just like anything else. Lecture me as you like, but I wouldn't wear them otherwise.)

Practicing Fidelity

On two fronts, even.

First, it occured to me while plodding through the green Weasley and That Scarf that just *maybe* I would be happier if I didn't have have so many large knitting projects weighing down my to-do list.

And maybe the reason I have so many of those is that I keep starting more of them while never really working on the old ones.

(Unless forced to.)

On the one hand, I am addicted to that cast-on rush.

On the other, there are several projects that I really want to have finished.

Moreover, I keep thinking about how enjoyable it would be to work on them.

Yet I don't.

Haven't for months now.

This has got to stop. (Maybe.)

I am not changing my ways!

Not, not, not.

But I am going to *try* out a little project fidelity.

See how it feels.

For one project.

If I don't like it, so be it. I'll go back to being a slut.

But for now, you're going to be getting a whole lot of Lizard Ridge.

Hope it isn't too boring. (For me. I don't care about you!)

Squares 10-13 of 24:

In Kureyon 183, 95, 180 and 153 (clockwise, starting from the upper left).



Second, I got me some over the weekend, and the resolution says I must blog about it, so here are some salacious pics:


Stripey Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock from Purl, and a skein of Cascade 220 -- probably for the edge of Lizard Ridge.


Koigu KPPM from The Yarn Company.


And something called Vignette by Nashua Handknits, also from the Yarn Co.


I am very excited about the Vignette -- it is a chainette superwash wool with relatively long color runs. Here's my thinking: chainette = low pilling; superwash = easy care; wool = warm; long color runs = striping not pooling.

Full of possibilities.

But I've got to think small. (Or maybe I've got to think "swatch.")

I've got just two skeins.

You might think that this is because I am phenonmenally strong-willed, and having already picked up the Koigu, I knew that I was only allowed two more skeins from that store under the Rules of Acquisition.

Ha!

They only had the two skeins. (Yes, I asked.)

Maybe that "higher power" was looking out for me, keeping me on the wagon awhile longer?

Sort of like on that episode of Wonderfalls.

You haven't seen Wonderfalls?

Who *are* you?

Okay, okay, so no one but me saw Wonderfalls.

Probably why they cancelled it.

Tragic.

That was some fine T.V.

(Available on DVD!)