This blog hasn't been much about knitting lately but I think I'd better get back on the subject for a bit, especially since SP7 is about to start.
First of all let me say that I am about finished and then some with crochet. For Christmas I made some ruffle scarfs, two ear flap hats and a sweater/shrug thingie. They all turned out nice but crochet is just so BOOOOORING! And in my opinion, very few things look nice crocheted. The ruffled scarfs yes, because they don't really look crocheted. The felted hats because, again, they don't show the definition of stitches. I also like the fact that things work up about twice as fast as knit versions but .... I'm done at least for a while with that.
So -- after company finally got out of my hair I had almost four whole days and nights to clean up, relax and knit. The first thing I started was the cabled shrug from IK. What I did not realize is that it is all set on a background of reverse stockinette stitch. I spent the better part of two days working on this -- I got through 30 rows of a 36 row repeat. Oh .. and I frogged 10 rows and started over. You do the math .... I was averaging 30 minutes a row! I am sure it'll get faster but the real slow down is that on the return when you would just mostly purl every stitch except for the one before and after each motif, this one you have to count each stitch because of the reverse SST. It is tedious beyond words and you can't let your mind wander a bit, so it's very tiring. And slow. Did I say slow? I estimate it would take months to complete.
I put it down for a day. I knew I would have to find another project to work on when I didn't want to concentrate so hard - like when watching football or a movie. After having my sister try on that lace peplum sweater I have decided that rather than try to re-design it I would just frog the whole thing. I thought the alpaca would lend itself well to the Loop-d-loop corrugated asymmetrical v-neck. With the left over yarn from the other sweater I swatched for it and it worked with a size larger needle. I cast on yesterday afternoon and pretty much finished one side of it already. It's going to be nice - nicer than that other thing for sure. And by "nice" I mean wearable. It's a very interesting pattern - one piece is worked as a "T" shape and the other knit diagonally with the stitches for the sleeve left on a holder and finished after the body.
I kept looking at that complicated shrug sitting there in the basket wondering if I had the staying power to finish it. And being honest, I didn't think it was looking that pretty - the reverse stockinette just grated on me. As I was laying in bed I thought -- why not just re-design it with a real right side and forget about the reverse stuff. I think it would look nicer. Then I could forget about all that extra counting on the return trip. I need to do a little more study of cable patterns - I may have to get rid of the zig-zag pattern to keep it simple but we'll see. That does mean frogging it and restarting once more but hey -- it's the process, right?
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