Defeated by the Knitting

Sometimes, the knitter and the knitting dance, with lovely yarn and a satisfying pattern, and a project just flies through your fingers onto the needles, pleasurable progress.

This is the week the knitting kicked my ass.

Orangina is killing me. I just can't get the lace right. It is a simple, 9-stitch pattern. Easy to memorize. And I keep messing it up. Over and over again. I have ripped it countless times this week, casting on again, only to be defeated yet again by simple yarnovers. In my first few attempts, I did use stitch markers liberally to keep me straight, and it did help. But about four inches into the piece, I realized it would be too big. So, I ripped it out, and with hope and excitement, cast on for the smaller size, knowing that it would go even faster, since the rows were now shorter.

I decided to forgo the stitch markers this time, since I had memorized the pattern, and seemed to be moving along without trouble. The stitch markers are a pain in the ass for this project as the lace shifts over one stitch every row, so instead of simply slipping a marker, you must slip a stitch, remove the marker, slip the stitch back to the left hand needle, knit it, and the replace the SM. This seemed to be slowing me down, I thought, and pressed on.

And then I spent the rest of the week wading in the frog pond, missing a YO here, or a K there, and throwing off the whole pattern. I think I have ripped out the first three inches of the back of this sweater 6 times now.

This weekend, we went down the shore. I brought Orangina and little sister's crunchy granola Trekking sock with the intention of knitting the sock in the car, and Orangina in the house when I had some free time. See, sister's crunchy granola Trekking sock has been boring me to tears. Gray. Cream. And every possible variation of gray. And Cream. And these socks are knitted on US0s, so progress has been slow going, to say the least. I have been studiously avoiding said socks, but decided to buckle down and make some real progress before the Sundara and the Lorna's Laces arrive, never mind the two skeins of STR, a few hanks of koigu and other lovely sock yarns just screaming to be knitted. It is time to get the dull Trekking socks out of my life, once and for all.

200 miles round trip in the car would get me through the cuff of the first sock. I was convinced. And while I ended up doing the driving on the way down the shore (if I cannot knit while driving, Mr. S cannot Blackberry while he driving either), once I again ripped Orangina on Friday night, having been again vanquished by simple lace, I was truly hopeful that this weekend would see a finished Trekking sock, with the second sock being cast on immediately. The sock would come along on my overnight anniversary jaunt to NYC with Mr. S, with lots of progress. I even imagined my Trek Along With Me post, with my humble gray and cream crunchy granola sock logging many miles with me -- Rhode Island, down the shore, NYC...

Things were looking good. And then, Saturday night, I tried one on. At least, I tried to try one on.

THEY ARE TOO TIGHT!

Now my sister has lovely narrow feet and delicately slim ankles and calves. But this sock would not go over my heel. See, I picked a slipped-stitch ribbed pattern, that gave wonderful definition to the ribs, but the combination of both ribbing and slipping stitches made for a too-tight cuff.

So, the 6-inch long cuff got ripped, and now I am knitting the ribs without the slipped stitches.

And I am trying to knit Orangina with the only stitch markers that were available down the shore.



Please please please let this be a better week.