Do-over

Well, remember that infinity scarf I mentioned the other day, the one I was knitting with Malabrigo yarn? I finished it last night, or two nights ago, and while it would have been ok to leave as-is (or, as-was, more appropriately), I decided it wouldn't do that fabulous yarn justice for me to have something I was ambivalent about. So, project was frogged, yarn was re-wound (and my goodness, how happy I am to have figured out that I can make center-pull balls with yarn I wind up! Before I was just winding it in a straight-up ball, and working with the outside yarn. Doesn't work as well that way. Center pull? I loves me a center-pull ball). Trying the scarf thing again, but with different yarn. I'll have to contemplate a bit more what I want that Malabrigo to become. I think I found something, but it'll have to wait a bit.

So tonight, I got down to the business of starting a new one. Except, here it is, hours later, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I've cast on and undone and re-cast on and knit a few rows and undone again, multiple times. I can't figure out the right needles, and decided to try a different pattern. And then the pattern I decided on had me cast on what I consider an insane number of stitches, but I didn't really realize this until I had already gone a row or two. Hopefully I'm settled down now, and things will finally progress. I'm anxious to have it done, because the yarn I'm using now is an alpaca yarn. And let me tell you. Alpaca is my new favorite animal. Goodness. If you've never felt alpaca yarn, be my friend and come over and I'll let you pet it. It's delicious. So, assuming that when I join the stitches (so I can knit in the round - because boy oh boy, I have a great dislike for stitching up a project) I don't twist it, which has happened once or twice tonight as well, I should be off and running. And I should hopefully be able to get this thing done by the end of the week.

Of course, there's also still the other blanket to finish. Plus the baby one. Plus a couple scarves promised to a couple of people. (But I'm trying to stay simple on those, so they're not so time-consuming.)

And, oh yeah, did I mention, those five graduate classes I have. Right, those.

Thankfully, the worst part of any project for me is the beginning. And it's especially bad when it requires casting on 100-200 stitches, because having to redo that many is time-consuming. Casting on 15 or 20? No biggie. That's the trade-off between knitting in the round versus doing seaming afterward. Ah, well. At least once this one is going, everything I have going is pretty simple. So that's good.

Now, back to it.

Setback.

Today has not been a very good day in general, and in knitting.

I'm currently working on my first-ever Malabrigo project (a delightful and delicious yarn I'm so excited to try, and the color I bought a few months ago - and yes, am just now getting around to using - is called Azalea. Hello, perfect?). I realized today that I really wish I had used a size or two larger needles for it. I like squishy things, and with the needles I'm using, it's not turning out so squishy. But I'm so close to being done (and really, it's not a big project and I just started it a few days ago) that I'm just going to finish it, but not cut the yarn or tie the end off, and see how I feel about it. If I like it, great, if not, I'll just have to start all over. No biggie. But still. Kinda disappointing.

Then tonight, I finished up a scarf I started (back in December, when I got way over-ambitious about Christmas projects) for my nephew, and realized both that it looks shabby thanks to the number of times I went back and forth between colors, and that I seem to have tightened my gauge halfway through so it's not exactly even as it should be. Which wouldn't be noticeable except for the fact that I decided to switch colors every 15 rows. So, I'm rather bummed about that. He's almost 6, so I doubt he'd really care or notice, but I care and notice. Still have to figure out what I'm going to do about that one.

And last Saturday, I worked hours and hours and stayed up late to finish this blanket project I've had going since November (which also was meant to be a Christmas gift). First of all, I'm not entirely sure that I even like it now that it's done (except now that it's washed and soft, I love the yarn - I always love the after-wash result when I make blankets and things out of Caron Simply Soft. Acrylic it might be, but it sure lives up to its name). It's a circle. Who wants a circle blanket? Sigh. Plus, the worst part is that, as usual for me, the edge (which is all bind-off, obviously, since it's a circle done from the inside out) is too tight. I should have used bigger needles, or something, been more careful about it, but by the time I got to that point I had already been working on it several hours longer than I had originally planned (but I decided to add four extra rows - which isn't a small thing when the rows have almost 600 stitches each), and I just wanted to be DONE. So I did it quickly, and not loosely like I should have, and it kind of curls in. I was hoping it'd relax a bit with the wash, and it did some, but not enough for my liking. So, ridiculous though this is (especially since I was hoping to get it in the mail tomorrow), I'm undoing the edge. All 576 stitches of it. Gah. And then I'll redo it in a larger needle, and hopefully that'll help it a lot. If not, it just wasn't meant to be great, and hopefully the recipients will at least appreciate the gesture.

And people wonder why I don't think I'm very good at knitting. It's because I'm not. Duh.

Back to the never-ending blanket. Sigh.