Sunday, November 18, 2012

Unfocused

You know, it really is shameful how I treat you dear blog.

For a while there I was giving constant updates on my owl socks, frequent pictures of my purple sweater.  And just when I was in the groove and you were checking my blog daily *WHAM* I hit you with radio silence for weeks.  With no explanation.

Cause that's just how I roll.

Where did it all go wrong you might wonder.  Why do I so frequently abandon you?

Often I don't know.

Often I'm just not feeling it.

And when you're not feeling it there really is nothing you can do.

But in this case I can tell you exactly where it all went wrong.

It all fell apart for the lack of a size 9 needle.

I have been knitting a very long time.  I've been blogging since 2005 (oh that makes me feel old), and knitting even longer (oh that makes me feel even older).  Through the years I have amassed a fairly large collection of needles and do-dads.  Some useful, some only useful in theory.  All fun.

I have straight needles in every size, circulars (addis and others), metal, plastic, wood, bamboo (which is also a kind of wood, but trust me, it is different and deserves a mention of its very own).  I have a gallon size zip lock bag of different kinds and sizes of dpns.  I have crochet hooks stashed all over the house cause you never know when you  might need a crochet hook.  All these knitting tools that beginner me with my one pair of size 8 straight needles could only dream of.

All these tools of the trade and I only own one size 9 circular needle.

And it isn't even a good size 9 needle.

It is a Boye size 9 needle with the world's most inflexible cord that I bought at Wal Mart.

I hate this needle.

True Story.

And I don't own any size 9 dpns.

An entire gallon size ziplock bag of dpns, and no size 9s.

Not a single one.

Since I have been knitting longer than I care to admit and I've gotten along just fine without them for this long, one might think that a size 9 needle is relatively unimportant.

And it is.

Until you need one.

And then a second size 9 circular needle or set of size 9 double pointed needles becomes everything.

Remember my beautiful purple sweater.

Photobucket

Yes this purple sweater.  The one I knit and frogged, and knit and frogged, and knit and possibly frogged and knit again.  Yeah, that one.

I knit the entire body

Photobucket

Ta-Da!

And then I discovered I only own the one pair of size 9 circular needles that I had been using to knit the body of my pretty purple sweater.

Da Da Dunnnnnnnnnnnnn

Enter tragedy stage left.

The sleeves are knit in the round.  The stitches are picked up from the armscye (i.e. the arm hole) and knit down from there.  The cord on my cruddy circular needles is too stiff to magic loop the sleeves, or use traveling loop.  Lacking a second circular needle I could not knit the sleeves with two circular needles.  Lacking size 9 dpns I could not knit my sleeves with dpns.

In short I could not knit the sleeves.

I told myself I could just wait for payday and buy a new set of needles then.

In the meantime I didn't know what to do with myself.

I knit my Knit Picks project.  (no pictures it is Super Duper Top Secret (tm))

I knit the body of a Miette,

Photobucket

And then I lost interest.

I knit a Capucine

Photobucket

But I'm not sure I like it, so I haven't finished it. I bet I would like it more if I blocked it. But I'm just not interested in blocking it.

I've knit the entire body of a very hard to photograph Flaming June.  Twice.

I didn't like the fabric the first time

Photobucket

So I frogged and tried again with the yarn held double.

Photobucket

Again, not sure I love it, so I've lost interest in knitting any further on it.

For the love of all that is good I just need to finish a knitting project!  Like a petulant child if I can't knit what I wanna knit I don't wanna knit anything.

Don't worry.

I got my groove back.

And it didn't even involve another crummy size 9 circular Wal Mart needle.  I still haven't bought my second crummy size 9 circular Wal Mart needle yet

But alas, this post is already long and photo heavy.

You will have to wait until tomorrow who am I kidding, next month, to hear how I remembered that I love knitting.

No comments: