Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Okay, I'll admit it. Knitting can require patience.

One thing that all knitters hear, ALL THE TIME, is "oh, I don't have the patience for knitting!" And all knitters make pretty much the same response: "I knit because I am NOT patient." When you are a knitter, you always have something to keep you occupied, and you never have to 'be patient' while in line, at a doctors office, waiting for the movie to start, etc because you have knitting you can pull out to keep you occupied. I, for one, am not patient. I like knitting while listening to music. I like knitting while talking to friends. I like knitting when I am on break at work. All because I do not want to sit and do nothing, i.e. "wait". I am not patient.
So what do I mean, knitting can require patience? Well, sometimes (okay most of the time) I screw up and have to tink back stitches to correct a mistake I made. Or I have to make a stupid swatch to see if I have gauge (I don't often do this). Or, worst of all, I have to rip back several hours of work because I f*d up. Hence why this half-way done glove:
Now looks like this:
Boo! I was almost done with the thumb increase! Almost to the easiest part of the glove! What happened, you ask? Well, I have already done the right glove. The way the pattern is written (it is Women's Lace Gloves for those of you who care, found at Free Vintage Knitting Patterns), you look at the first and second pages (the right hand glove) for the lace pattern, and once you are on the left hand glove you just flip over to pages 3 and 4 for increases and other instructions. But you still have to look at pages 1 and 2 for the lace pattern. The pattern is quite easy, and I have it memorized. BUT, sometimes when you are drinking or something your memory is not quite as good, so I still refer to the lace pattern. Well, the thing is, I blew right on into the thumb increase and didn't bother to turn the page. Even sadder, I didn't notice until last night at work. I had finally increased enough that I could slip it on to my hand and see how the pattern looks and how the glove fits. It looked quite beautiful, so I decided to compare it with the first glove. I pulled it out of my knitting bag, and realized that it should go on the same hand modeling the second glove. Crap.
See? They are both laying palm up, and the thumb increase in on the same side. Crap.
Even more depressing, I used larger size 2s for the first glove. When I got to the fingers, the fingers were baggy so I switched to smaller size 2s (I need to learn the metric sizes, huh?). Since the first glove is a bit baggy, I decided to knit the left glove with the smaller 2s. It does look better, and if they are much different I will reknit the right glove with these smaller needles, hence why I haven't woven in the ends yet. Judging from this picture, I will need to reknit the right glove.
And guess what I just thought of? If I am going to do that, I should NOT have ripped back the left glove, I should have designated it the reknit! Shit! Shit! Too late now.
In happier news, it was my birthday and this was my cake. It wasn't bad, but it was more like a two-layer brownie than a cake. That is what I get for being vegan, I guess.
While I was outside taking pictures of my bullshit glove project, the cats ventured out with me. Ditto looks like a big, fat raccoon. Stubbles looks like a bitchy hairy poof, as usual. And yes, as evidenced by the pictures of the gloves as well as this one, it is totally gray outside. Gray, gray, gray. Depressing.
I guess I will get back to knitting, dammit. I haven't finished my mom's sweater because a bunch of crap has happened, so it will just be a gift when I finish it. I will size it on her when I see her at Christmas. Instead I had to buy her some shit. Oh well.

1 comment:

Severina said...

Ya know, I've unraveled more gloves and socks than I care to admit. Don't know why I keep making the fool things.

Last month there was the 1940s stocking that was about two feet long before I got the bright idea to try it on. It quickly returned to its yarn-ball state and mocked me until I started on the latest damnable stocking, which the cat will most likely drag away somewhere tonight and do something ghastly to.

grumble