UGH

1. I started a February Baby Sweater and about 3 inches in realized that I was using one 3.75mm needle and one 3mm needle. Because I'm smart like that. Ripped. Restarted. UGH.

2. Decided I wanted to work on my Lily of the Valley Scarf. Go to pull it out of my knitting basket and realized I pulled the scarf OFF the needles. Completely. I tried to put it back on the needles, and even perservered for a row or two. The nupps. They don't look so good when you've lost half of their stitches. UGH.

3. I wanted to finish up my travelling scarf, and decided possibly a crochet edge to even it all out. Forgot how much I hate crochet. Also forgot how unforgiving crochet is and how it "stabilizes" edges (read as - has no give). Ripped out. Now at a loss of how to finish. UGH.

There is one small highlight in my knitting. Yesterday, I started some stockings. I am loving the lace pattern and also how fast they're going. When you're only knitting on 40 some stitches around, you fly. I also hope that this is what this yarn is meant to be, because I don't think it can handle being frogged yet again.

I'm not buying what you're selling

You know when people try and convince you of something. Something that you firmly believe is wrong or crazy, but someone will work really hard to shake your foundation of beliefs. I just want to tell them "I'm not buying what you're selling".

Case 1:
Nylons with open-toed shoes. My mother (who was raised by quite the fashionista) believes a proper lady always wears nylons or tights. I often balk at this - mostly because finding comfortable tights for my 6'2" frame is near impossible. I have to buy the xx-queen size in order to be able to pull them up. I get the ones that fit 250-300 lbs and hope they'll stretch vertically rather than horizontally. Anyway, back to my original point. Open toed shoes are in - and supposedly wearing them in winter is ok. With your tights. I did this once and I couldn't stop looking at my feet. I felt self-conscious all day long - I thought someone was going to come up to me and say "That's not appropriate dear" (with my grandmothers inflection). So no matter how many fashion mavens say "it's ok" I'm just not sure I'm buying what they're selling. Your thoughts?

Case 2:
That this pattern is going to work.



J. and I joined this sock club. Beautiful yarn, good price. Our first sock club (in preparation for '08 Rockin' Sock Club). And the promise of nice patterns with the yarn.
The actual stitch pattern is nice - easily memorized, only a 4 row repeat. I can handle this with no problem, right? Oh no, so so wrong. I knit the heel flap, turned the heel and started the gussets. The pattern wasn't centred on the front of the foot - so I frogged. Back to the start of the heel, re-centred the pattern, re-started the heel flap. *&$()*&ed it up - somehow kept dropping a stitch. Ripped back AGAIN. To me, 2 frogging incidents means something's up. The yarn or pattern is cursed or there is a toxic combination of yarn & pattern. Now I'm contemplating my options. The yarn is supposedly a little heavier than fingering, so I'm looking at patterns that use a bit heavier yarn. The only problem is that these on are the Christmas To Do list and I can't weigh my options for too long.

Case 3:
That this kid hasn't been naughty.


Really.
Buddy - I'm not buying what you're selling. And neither is Santa.

You have GOT to be kidding...

That lace weight yarn will be the death of me.

I started a new rectangular shawl with it and after a number of attempts, I have given up.

Is it just me or is lace weight yarn a pain in the 'you know what' to work with? Honestly, I have no idea. Is it me or the yarn??

I have put the ball away and can not look at it. Seriously.....

The Love Affair is Over

It didn't last long -- sometimes things just aren't meant to be. I don't think it was me, but Lace has decided to make things difficult. Not sure what the downfall was. I need to cotemplate a little longer as to why things didn't work out.

Things began well enough. It took a little work to get started (recall the 1 K of yarn winding), but once that rough patch was over, things were looking up. We started out together on the path to Tuscany. We didn't make it too far along the path before I realized things weren't working out. So we started over, and then started over again and again. After many, many tries, I realized this was really not meant to be.

This is the after picture of the yarn. Innocent enough, right? Now take a closer look.........

See that big mess of yarn at the front - that's from being frogged about 15 times. Who knew you could split lace yarn and drop stitches and lose track of where you were 15 times. Honestly, it's over.

On the brighter side, I ran my "big race" today - thanks to J. She had to kick my a$% a few times along the way, but I did it. I had a minor (well more like Major) panic attack at the 8K mark when I looked up and all I saw was uphill back to the finish line. J. should seriously consider a job in motivational speaking, or cheerleading. She's THAT good.

Here we are at the finishing line (I'm the tall one - J.'s the athletic-looking one).

J. waited for me at the bottom of the last bit of trail so that we could run it in! She ran the whole way with me and talked the entire time to keep me distracted (not really that hard to believe if you know J.). She's the best!