Frogging, Knitting, Gauging, and Other Crafting Woes....Oh and Hello!

I know it's been a long long time since I've posted anything but I am working my way back.  I have a new video in the plans for my YouTube channel so stay tuned.  Though I have been away for a while I haven't been totally idle.  I have been crocheting but also knitting more.  I was trying to increase my knitting skills so that I can get the courage to knit actual clothing. So after about 5 hats I think I have tested more complicated knitting like lace and cables enough to dive in the deep end.

Being my usual self I decided to make a fair isle vest.  I have been literally drooling for the vest made by Euny Chang ever sense I saw it.  In all my skill building throughout this entire year, have I done any fair isle knitting?  Why no.  But I must have some kind of glitch in the old gray cells when it comes to taking on new things because when I decide to do something I go for what I like and not how hard it may be to do.  My first wearable would be something I had never done.  I guess I put way too much faith in my tenacity or I'm just too ignorant of the challenges to know any better.  I think it's a little of both.

I struggled endlessly on understanding adjustments on gauge and swatches.  I just gave up on the whole idea and just went up on the needles.  The swatch was in the range of the right size and so I just went for it.  I worked the ribbing in the pattern specified and I hated the colors.  Then I began to doubt my color combination.  It was hard enough picking six colors that I liked and then imagine how they would look together.  Then having to go with the LYS because my funds are too limited to buy yarn online.  So I used what was available, which isn't much as far a colors go.  I realized the problem is that the pattern designer should have hinted that the ribbing coloring would look like the photo if you picked three pale or pastel colors.  I only had two.

Though I wasn't throwing a parade over my project so far I kept going in the hopes that it would grow on me.  I got into the fair isle section and was on a role loving the design until I noticed that there were stitches coming loose.  How does that happen?  Did I drop a stitch and didn't notice?  Whatever happened I have three holes in round 25 and I was on round 40.  Not only did I not know how to fix it I didn't even know what happened or if I would do it again.

The time of truth came.  Do I frog all those rows back to the ribbing or do I rip the entire thing out and start over.  I am somewhat of a perfectionist so ripping it all out was the best answer.  It just didn't make sense to rip that far back and still be so unhappy with the ribbing.  So it all had to go. Now I had to decide how would I do the ribbing so I went to Ravelry to see what others did and decided to make the ribbing one color.  I have to say that ripping all those rows out felt so freeing that I wondered why I didn't do it in the first place when I didn't like the work.  Frogging makes me feel like I have learned something very valuable and the act of doing it is my confirmation that I am wiser and nothing can stop me now.  Is that a bit much to get from such a destructive act?  Maybe so but I already warned you about my gray cells.

So being liberated from the confines of a messed up project I now start over free to get it right this time.....hopefully.  I will post pics as I get further on.  If you have a knitting project that you had to frog because of the colors, do share.

Crafting Away.....

It's been a long hard road to being an active blogger.  I am so unable to keep up a daily habit it's ridiculous but I will try to add something monthly.  I have been rejuvenated as of late to not only crochet but to knit and even more importantly get back to designing.

I have a stack of designs that have not come to fruition due to health or good old "don't feel like it" in unending amounts.  I never thought that I would get to a point in my crafting life where I would stop all crafting completely but that is what happened this year.  Things come up, feel good goes down, and you find that the thing you love so much has totally lost all of your interest.  I made a concerted to change that after moving this summer. After settling in I hunkered down for some serious crocheting and once I did I started feeling like myself again.  So much so that I also got back so designing, so keep your eyes open for my new designs.

 

Unfortunately I have broken my number one, all time, cardinal rule:  I started new projects before finishing the current one.  I'm usually a stickler to the rules but at this point in my life I don't really mind have 20 things on the burner.  I am working on a sweater design, knitting a wrap, crocheting slippers, crocheting an afghan, and photographing recently finished designs.  Since I don't feel overwhelmed over it all I figure my brain needs the variety since I find myself getting bored with one thing after a couple of days.  How about you?  Has your crochet and knitting habits changed?

Crochet Confusion, Knitting Know-No

Crochet Confusion
Okay guys, I am officially all over the map with what I am working on.  I was working on original hats for my teenage twin nieces when I realized that I couldn't forget about my nephew.  He loves what I do too and I figured he would like a nice "big boy" hat.  I started brainstorming on that until I decided I didn't want to have leftovers of the yarn from the girl's hats so I went on to design a jewelry line until the yarn ran out.  Well that was no good because the ideas came flooding out, but the yarn quickly ran out.

Did I mention that I hadn't even uploaded the two hat patterns yet?  If you've lost track you're not alone because before I started on any of these projects I had quickly accumulated two duffel bags full of yarn to make this much coveted afghan I have been wanting to make for years.  You know the kind that requires so much yarn that you have to wait for your income tax return to come in before you have the money to buy it all.  So let's see...I was supposed to be making an afghan but got sidetracked and made two hats plus two new hat designs for my nieces which then overflowed into making a new jewelry line and finally a hat for my nephew.  I won't confuse the situation anymore by mentioning I was making two hats for my sister-in-law to be as a thank you gift.

Tell me.  Am I the only one who has suddenly lost all craft sense.  I have always held to one cardinal rule when I started crocheting:  Don't start anything else until this one is finished.  What has happened to me to make me get in such a confusion?  I'll tell you what.  I discovered that someone in my family loves my craft and I lost my mind over the thought of it and was spurred on to create.  The design bug has bitten me again and I'm loving every minute of it; confusion and all.


Knitting Know-No
Please don't close this window when I say that I also got bit by the knitting bug and I just HAD to try to knit socks again.  I figure that I am an intelligent woman and knitting socks cannot be out of the realm of my brain activity.  I just needed to see the steps in action.  There is where the wonderful world of YouTube comes in. I love it so much that I have three channels because I am super detailed like that.  But I figured it out guys!!  So I just had to make at least one.  In the video the instructor repeated over and over that when you get to the heel to turn the tv off, go into a quiet room, and do nothing but that heel.  She said you cannot stop once you start. That when you start you must finish it in one session.  Well I'm a novice and therefore didn't think it was that big a deal when it came to the heel.  You know what I'm going to say next right?  I was watching two amazing movies from my youth which led to my frogging that stupid heel four times.  Whoever said that ignorance was bliss lives in a cave and they certainly aren't knitting socks in that cave.

In conclusion, when you are knitting socks and you get to the heel, know enough to say no to any kind of distractions and when you have promised yourself to stick to one thing at a time it's not a sin if you blow all your rules out of the water.  They don't call it an obsession for nothing.

Happy crafting