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Meh, Knitting, and Meh Knitting

September 13, 2007 by Susanne 7 Comments

Originally I wanted to write a “what I did this summer”-post but yesterday held a big knitting disappointment for me. Which made me realize that this only was the last straw on top of a dozen or so other disappointments. None of them major and all together enough to make me feel very – meh.

My husband has already written about our not so joyful summer break. I didn’t know that you could get almost depressed because your computer is broken, but there you are, this is modern life. In fact it was his computer that broke, and got fixed, and was still broken, and got fixed, and was still broken. I’m about to bring it home again tonight, so keep your fingers crossed. Maybe it will be really fixed this time. (And thank God for extra apple care security plan. Hurray!)

So back to the knitting. Some of you may recall the brown cardigan I have been knitting for a while. In fact I ordered the yarn on Valentine’s day (this year that is) and since then I have been knitting away, unraveling whole pieces of it from time to time, but steadily making progress. This is how the cardigan looked yesterday at noon:

cardigan.JPG

Only half a sleeve left to knit. This is how the cardigan looks now:

yarn.JPG

See, even the camera has a blurry eye… And then I remembered why I haven’t knit anything besides scarfs and socks for years. The problem is that for about twenty years knitting my gauge was always way too lose. Every thing I knitted ended up to be too big. Then I had enough of this and I taught myself to knit more tight. Since then every single thing I knitted ended up too small. I forgot all about this when I started knitting that cardigan. I thought if I did everything right there wouldn’t be a problem. Until about two months ago I held one of the finished sleeves to my arm out of sheer curiosity. It was, well, about three sizes too small, but we all know that you can block it and then it will turn out right, won’t it? Right?

It was about that time that my sister asked me for leftover yarn. She wanted to knit for charity. I didn’t know there was such a thing in Germany. I had heard about such things in the US but never here. Then, on the other hand, it isn’t as if I were knowing vast amounts of people who like to knit. There’s my mother, my sister and my aunt and that’s that. Of course I immediately started knitting for that on my own. Knitting for preemies. Stricken für Frühchen. For hospitals.

So I laid my cardigan aside and made these:

babystuff.JPG

Yes, those are three socks. I still have to knit another one because then I started reading knitting blogs like this one and then I had to start knitting jaywalker socks for my husband immediately. I knitted the first sock on our way to Paris and back, finished it only to find that the fit was terrible, revisited the pattern, found out that it was a very bad idea to knit the heel differently on a whim because it left me with a foot that was much too wide. Then I unraveled it. And since there was another mistake early on I had to unravel the whole thing and start over again. I just finished it for the second time.

You know I thought I was a quite experienced knitter. I can do all the techniques. Only now I am feeling a little low. I would be a nice change to knit something that would go right the first time and then actually fit.

I won’t give up though. I took me about four months to almost finish that cardigan the first time around. Well, January is a nice cold month. No problem. But first I’ll knit the second of my husband’s socks. And the second teeny tiny baby sock.

I still have a huge stash that begs to be turned into baby socks, hats, and blankets. And three sewing patterns. And fabric for a dress. (Since I have just gained about 2 kilos (4,5 lbs) and it’s a summer dress I’ll leave that and the matching bag for next spring. I’ll probably finish my husband’s bag first and then buy some new fabric to make myself a bagpack tote following Liesl’s pattern.)

So I made. a. plan: First I’ll knit the second of my husband’s socks. Then the second baby sock. Then I’ll start knitting the cardigan again. (Which size? Which needle size? Do I do a sample piece before to see the gauge if it never turns out that way anyway? Do I just start somewhere and then measure once I’m a few inches in? AARGH!)

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Filed Under: creativity, knitting

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. crazymumma says

    September 14, 2007 at 3:49 am

    ooohhh. I love those little things all laid out on a blanket. It looks like an art installation.

    Reply
  2. Hel says

    September 14, 2007 at 8:13 am

    It is not quite the same thing but after doing three weeks of prelimanary research for an University project I have suddenly decided to change topics five days before my proposal needs to be handed in.

    Reply
  3. SofiaVerlag says

    September 14, 2007 at 9:54 am

    My daughter was a premie and I would have loved those socks! She got a very lovely quilt that kept the glare out of her eyes but something to keep her little feet warm would have been wonderful!!!!

    Reply
  4. flutter says

    September 14, 2007 at 8:34 pm

    Your jaywalkers are sooo beautiful

    Now, Do a gauge swatch. If you know you knit like wayyyy too loosely then go down a needle size or more, if you have to OR, knit one pattern size down and it should fit you fine.

    shut up flutter 🙂

    Reply
  5. meno says

    September 15, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    And this is the reason i do not knit.

    My mother one made be a beautiful fisherman’s knit sweater that was 2 sizes too small and sleeves that were about 5 inches too long. My mother thinks i am an orangatang.

    Reply
  6. capacious says

    September 17, 2007 at 1:20 am

    In the last issue of Vogue, there were oversized knitted pieces by Giles – they were astounding, really like art, crazy:

    http://www.stylehive.com/bookmark/102520

    Knitting is cool.

    Reply
  7. Joanna Butchart says

    September 17, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    if it is anyconsolation the cardigan looks beautifully knit (knitted??? knit? which is corrcet) I myself stick to scarves but i use funky wool so it makes me look clever

    Reply

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