Tuesday, September 26, 2017

When I'm Wrong I'm Wrong

Behold! A swatch!

You see, it had to be done. I was wrong to imagine the yarn you see holding the swatch up would ever look right in this pattern. I was also wrong to think I was going to double strand this cotton. I changed my mind accordingly and here lie the labors of my mind. Keeping it simple has many advantages.

My original failed project had 199 stitches. It was going to be fairly large for a baby blanket. The swatch is 25 stitches (quite photogenic for a swatch, don't ya think?) and 4 inches across exactly. 200÷25=8  8×4=32 32 inches is a decent size for a baby blanket. I think I'll stick with the 199.

Now I have to decide to keep the swatch (because it's so pretty) or save yarn and roll it back up. Most likely I'll decide in favor of the latter, but I may be wrong. Again.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Where the Heck am I?

I'm here, lurking, reading, clicking all my links in the side bar looking for life in Blog Land. I've been feeling it's time to reconnect with the Knit Blog Community. This leads me to examine how I connected with Knit Blogging to start with, why I drifted away, and why I'm heading back in.

The reason I got into Knit Blogging was for a creative outlet that could encompass all the drives I had in me. I was brought to this community by my sister Heidi (Mica), remember her? She was a teenager at the time, getting into html coding, learning along side me the ins and outs of knitting, fiber, attempted crochet, etc. We blogged together for a while and then we blogged apart for a while. Things happened, lives exploded, lives were knit back together and exploded again and knit together again. 

Life is hard.

That's the real answer to all three reasons. I knit because life is hard. I blog because life is hard. I do art because life is hard. I fight with my family because life is hard. I make up with my family because life is hard. I drifted away from blogging because life is hard and I'm back here because life is hard.

The hardness of life, though, need not make us hard. It definitely can do so, but we choose how we respond to hardness. We can develop tenacity, empathy, kindness, compassion and we can love just as hard as life can be. Through it all, keep moving forward, keep swimming, knit through all, keep on keeping on, never give up, plug away, keep breathing in and out and keep our heads up.

Whatever kicks us or slaps us or does unjustifiable things to us - that is the problem of that thing. Our response and attitude is our problem. You reap what you sow. Karma. Balance. God. The Universe. Aliens. Whatever you believe all boils down to the same thing Jesus said, "Treat others as you would like to be treated." and "Turn the other cheek." And for the sake of all things just BE NICE, c'mon! Is it really that hard to just not be a jerk? hm? really?

ANYWAY...

I started knitting a thing and then I ripped the thing apart because it was making my eyes crossed. Originally I was going to make a pretty little baby blanket out of variegated yarn and also knit patterns into it. That was a bad idea. And of course there's all those people talking to you when you are just trying to think straight and you P K P K P instead of K P K P K and it all goes bonkers. So... the end and the beginning.

So here I am at the library where they have real internet and actual quiet doing real work and some playing (right now) although this technically is work because I'm writing and I'm a writer. so there HUMPH

Anyway, different yarn is picked out and since I actually did my due diligence and planned it out very  thoroughly, I can start again with much fewer problems - hopefully. I actually get to use the object of my last post, my "new" yarn stranding box that I made. I'm actually going to do a swatch first. (don't panic) Everyone knows I don't "swatch" (yes I used that as a verb) and I'm not a "swatcher" but we can't all stick to our principles 100% of the time. If this double stranding is too much for this pattern, I want to know now before I cast on 199 stitches and do several rows of garter stitch and then start something I can't stomach.

So, I'm back and I'll be back again.

Just keep knitting, knitting, knitting la la LA LA laaaaaaaaaaaaaa