It must be a little like Heroin

I can’t stop knitting cold turkey. You can’t expect me to just ‘take a break’. I have to wean myself off the needles.
Last night I promised myself that after the Olympics I was going to take a few days off. It was REALLY hard. All I wanted to do was fix the mistakes in my hourglass sweater but I had vowed not to knit. So what did I do? I frogged. I frogged my little heart out. I needed to fix the neckline of my sweater so I started pulling, it was very soothing and technically I didn’t knit. Yay for me.

Just to give you an idea.

I know I shouldn’t complain but before ANY of you ask me to knit you a sweater let me tell you about my hourglass sweater.

FROGGING: the art of yanking out all of your project.

First 2 times I cast on the yarn was twisted so frogged it. The 3rd time I knit the whole hem and discovered that the join wasn’t ‘up to snuff’ so frogged it (I was watching son-in-law with Pauly Shore so I remember). So here I am 3 tries and nothing. Ok. So I feel frustrated and spend all day Sunday trying to talk myself out of making this sweater BUT realizing I can’t stop now and I can’t find anything to use the yarn for. So I start again.

It’s cast on, it’s going. I am doing well except I put some yarn in the stitches to use as lifelines in case I have to frog. This is the best idea I have ever had.

I pull out the lines and discover that I have bumps and it’s noticeable. I go on line to the team Canada blogsite and 2 seasoned knitters tell me that it’s probably going to show even if I block it. So I try to block it (wash and let it dry in the position you want it) Nope, not going to work. Fine. I will pull out the offending yarn down to the first lifeline mark.

I steam the frogged yarn to make it straight (start working on the sleeves meanwhile) and when it was dry I start to knit. HUGE PROBLEM. The new knitted rows don’t match up to the other knitted rows. CRAP CRAP CRAP. Fine. I decide to pull it out all the way to the hem line and start again (this is like Thursday last week). I start to curse and swear and decide that this damn sweater is driving me mad. I restart from the bottom. It’s going well. Really well. Everything is fantastic nothing can go wrong right? I have a few small errors but I will not frog again so the heck with it.

I get to the sleeves (which knitted up perfectly) I put them on the circular needles with the bodice (is that what you call it in knitting?). This is Saturday night at 11 pm. I have friends over. Everything is good. I start the Yoke. I discover that I have been slipping the stitches instead of slipping then knitting them. Out it comes. Back on the circ needles with the sleeves. I am going it’s great. It might be done for Sunday. What do I discover halfway through? The yoke line. The stitches that were slipped to make it look nice, well I have one at the front and one at the back. Yes. one at the front and one at the back. I have just lost 4 hours of work. It’s 3 am. No problem I can handle this.

Sunday morning I start again on the yoke. I get it done last night at 11 pm. I photograph it, put it on the blogs and then try it on. The neck is too big. I will be frogging next week.

I think I definately deserve this t-shirt http://www.cafepress.com/knitty/1233482

I thought it would be the end of me.

DONE! The hourglass sweater. This was my first sweater and possibly my last (see previous postings) It's been a challenge but that's what the olympics are for... right?

So last night

I was steadily making progess on my hourglass. I was feeling a bit excited that the body would be done soon as I only had to get to the bottom of the first page. Then I turned the page over and realized that after the sleeves I still had to do the yoke. Another 50 or 60 rounds to go plus 1/2 a sleeve. I may have to bring this to the pub with me on Sunday.

Death cannot stop true love-it can only delay it for awhile.

Okay, It’s a line from Princess Bride but it kinda fits. Chris and I went on a date last night. We went for Curry and then to see Underworld-Evolution, it’s about vampires vs werewolves. How was it? FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. We saw the first one in the theatres and I found it to be a bit confusing. When we saw it again I understood it more and it was pretty good. When we went to see the second one I really understood the first one and really really enjoyed the second. It was great and I honestly and highly recommend it.

The pain, the pain

I have pain in my hand. Strangly enough not when I am knitting. Is this a sign?On the brighter side. I am into the third round of decreases on my hourglass sweater and one and a half sleeves are done. Maybe.. just maybe...

Back ON

After much pondering and a day off I have decided to restart the hourglass. Thank you NotanArtist for the kind words of encouragement. I casted on last night and managed to get 8 rows done. I am debating taking it to work with me to make up for lost time but who knows if I will be able to do any when I am there anyway (I should have taken vacation). SarahJanet, you have inspired me to do socks. After hearing how easy it was and looking at my stash of very small balls of leftover yarn, I will try after the olympics. Off to work.

Doomed I tell you

After 4 false starts I have decided that my hourglass sweater is cursed too. Everytime I get somewhere I discover that something is wrong. Last night after I finally got the hem done in this style http://marniemaclean.com/words/2005/01/no-sew-hem.html I discovered that the join wasn't looking so good and frogged it. I restarted last night with the regular hem and found out that it was twisted after 5 rows. SO, TO HECK WITH IT, I am switching to socks, since I have never tried them before.

I was casting on OKAY?

Not the most flattering of photos

COUNT DOWN

I am so excited. The knitting olympics start tomorrow night at 7 pm. I have decided on the hourglass sweater (the orange one) and have picked out my yarn. It's a beautiful royal purple cotton yarn (from Greece!). I had picked some out on Sunday but decided that I was not happy with the color so I called Tsuki and asked her to go with me to change it. Matt was supposed to come home and watch the kids but he was running late so Tsuki and I piled her 7, 4 and 2 year old into my Saturn, it was a tight fit to say the least) and dragged the children off with promises of Tim Horton's if they were good (bribery gets you everywhere). The kids were great and very cute "Banessa, look at the yarn" and and lady at the Wool Mill was very kind and indulgent.
So I am ready. I don't know if I can wait another day to start. Oh and at last count there were 3300 people involved in the knitting olympics.