Identity Crisis
Something strange is happening. And I don't mean the fact that they FINALLY finished the siding on the house (remember when that started?) yesterday. Something strange is happening with my knitting.
At first, I thought that this was all that was amiss:
Yup, that's Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk. I ask you, what on Earth am I doing with that in my stash? Well, there was a little matter of a sale a couple months back, but still... The fact that I have earmarked it to become Essential Indulgence from IK is rather disconcerting (or may be) to some.
You see, I am, above all else, a yarn subber. And not just any old yarn subber, I am, for the most part, a cheapy ghetto yarn subber. This is something that I am well aware of, and I defy anyone to make me feel ashamed of that. It's one part necessity and one part imagining Timm Gunn over my shoulder admonishing me to, "make it work." It usually does.
But here I sit, poised on the edge of really unfamiliar territory. You see, (with the exception of some sample knitting I've done) I have never knit anything with the yarn called for in the pattern. Ever. One may remember the Red Heart Josephine. There was also a W tank made of Sugar and Cream (we won't delve too far into that), and the project that got me back into knitting, a Clapotis knit from Red Heart Lustersheen (in my defense, I couldn't at the time imagine anyone producing a worsted weight 50/50 silk-wool yarn.) I swatched, I got gauge, and it is wonderfully drapey and enjoyed tremendously by the recipient, my lovely mom. I've been guilty of scoffing at those who knit everything in the yarn called for and the color modeled. Now I'm looking at doing just that. Who am I, really? But one incident does not a crisis make, so I present you with Item B:
The "magico" continues. I actually wasted this much yarn:
to get the stripes on the DH's new socks to match. Big deal, right? Well, for me it is a HUGE deal. Let me show you my first ever handknit sock:
My mom sent me the yarn and the pattern and I happily knit away and ran out of yarn on the gusset of the second sock. There was no more of this yarn at the LYS my mom had bought it at, so she found as close a match as she could, and I frogged the first sock back so I could poach the yarn and just give them quasi-contrasting toes. To this day, no matter what, I am permanently convinced that I will run out of yarn while knitting socks if I don't use every last inch judiciously. Therefore, it hurt my heart a little to wind off that much just to make the stripes match (something I've never really cared about in the past, to tell the truth).
So, that's the corner I seem to be turning. Who knows if the leg ahead will be peppered with beauty, fraught with danger, or if it will all turn out to be the apex of a U turn? I'm looking forward to finding out.
Oh, and I dropped off my Fair entries today. That was far more queasy-making than I thought it would be. Judging is Sunday AM. It's out of my hands...
At first, I thought that this was all that was amiss:
Yup, that's Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk. I ask you, what on Earth am I doing with that in my stash? Well, there was a little matter of a sale a couple months back, but still... The fact that I have earmarked it to become Essential Indulgence from IK is rather disconcerting (or may be) to some.
You see, I am, above all else, a yarn subber. And not just any old yarn subber, I am, for the most part, a cheapy ghetto yarn subber. This is something that I am well aware of, and I defy anyone to make me feel ashamed of that. It's one part necessity and one part imagining Timm Gunn over my shoulder admonishing me to, "make it work." It usually does.
But here I sit, poised on the edge of really unfamiliar territory. You see, (with the exception of some sample knitting I've done) I have never knit anything with the yarn called for in the pattern. Ever. One may remember the Red Heart Josephine. There was also a W tank made of Sugar and Cream (we won't delve too far into that), and the project that got me back into knitting, a Clapotis knit from Red Heart Lustersheen (in my defense, I couldn't at the time imagine anyone producing a worsted weight 50/50 silk-wool yarn.) I swatched, I got gauge, and it is wonderfully drapey and enjoyed tremendously by the recipient, my lovely mom. I've been guilty of scoffing at those who knit everything in the yarn called for and the color modeled. Now I'm looking at doing just that. Who am I, really? But one incident does not a crisis make, so I present you with Item B:
The "magico" continues. I actually wasted this much yarn:
to get the stripes on the DH's new socks to match. Big deal, right? Well, for me it is a HUGE deal. Let me show you my first ever handknit sock:
My mom sent me the yarn and the pattern and I happily knit away and ran out of yarn on the gusset of the second sock. There was no more of this yarn at the LYS my mom had bought it at, so she found as close a match as she could, and I frogged the first sock back so I could poach the yarn and just give them quasi-contrasting toes. To this day, no matter what, I am permanently convinced that I will run out of yarn while knitting socks if I don't use every last inch judiciously. Therefore, it hurt my heart a little to wind off that much just to make the stripes match (something I've never really cared about in the past, to tell the truth).
So, that's the corner I seem to be turning. Who knows if the leg ahead will be peppered with beauty, fraught with danger, or if it will all turn out to be the apex of a U turn? I'm looking forward to finding out.
Oh, and I dropped off my Fair entries today. That was far more queasy-making than I thought it would be. Judging is Sunday AM. It's out of my hands...
posted by Bitterknitter at 1:12 PM
1 Comments:
Damn you and your Project Runway references. I got hooked on this guilty pleasure during the final episodes of last season and now have gone on to recording episodes from this season that I may have missed. I'm hooked. I love that you use Tim as a "shover". (Does that make any sense?). I think perhaps I might use that when writing. It'll work, right? I have to "make it work"...
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