Distractable Me -

Been truly living up to this blog's title lately, lots of freKNITic energy - however lacking in focus. I *did* however complete the Medano Beach Bag - in a bit of a frenzy it must be admitted... been experiencing some pain again and I mostly blame the excessive hours in a row spent on the bag. I'm happy with how it turned out but also wondering if I should try and line or reinforce it. Going to bring it to Aunt Peggy's when I visit VA for my mini-knitting retreat/show-and-tell the weekend after next.

After finishing the bag I've entered an extremely distractable phrase. I returned to the Easy Peasy Socks pattern with the Knit Picks Comfy Worsted yarn, but once again that ended in a frog. I used the wrong needle size but I may well have had gauge issues regardless. Bit painful to frog yet ANOTHER sock attempt. Think I may try a toe-up version for my next sock attempt.

A while ago I started on some boot toppers to match my sweater but that's kind of gone into hibernation mode for the moment mostly because the patons wool is feeling hot and scratchy to work with in the summer, but also because the pattern is kind of a perfect storm of just repetitive enough to be boring but not 100% easy to keep track of especially with putting it down and picking it up again. I will get back to them, though. And it's going to give me a chance to learn the three needle bind-off so that will be an adventure.

I then started on some fingerless gloves - fair amount of fudging but the first one is okay but has this gab at the thumb that seems like it shouldn't be there but maybe it is??? I also think I wsa supposed to work the thumb farther but oh well. I debated a lot about whether to make the second one, but I've started on it now so I am going to try to make myself finish the set even if they do end up being frogged eventually. I do like the comfy worsted yarn a lot - really lives up to it's name, super soft.

 The beach-cover up is still in progress but continues to feel like a slog. I wish I could get my momentum back for that - you'd think being close to finishing the first side would give me some energy but instead I'm dreading having to do the whole front. :P

I picked up the Jadis again last night for the first time. I put it back on the needles and did the first few rows of the Icicycles pattern. Will probably work on it some more today, too. Then to just be truly excessive I started casting on for a cowl that I really shouldn't have. What is it with me and having 5+ WIPS going at once?? I haven't made a project page for it yet because I'm not admitting to it 😂 

No clever/silly title atm

Last night I finished mom's afghan! I do need to wet-block it and I'm hoping that helps flatten it out. The i-cord is sort of curling in/scalloping the edges of the blanket. Not sure how long anything I do will stay though considering it's acrylic - and I don't want to risk steam blocking and ruining it. Now I have to wait more than 6mos to give it to her! This will require extreme patience.

I've been *itching* to start a new project and I did take a quick stab at a little dishcloth (although it will be useful for that purpose since I used the super saver yarn from the afghan project which is acrylic and therefore not absorbent at all. Toward the end one of my cheapo needles broke and that has caused kind of a mess. Not sure if I'll finish it or frog it.

Honestly I should probably finish at least the beach bag before I start on something else. The cover-up is feeling rather daunting and the weird yarn is not that fun to knit with as I've said before. I'm tempted to start the Breeze top and I even bought new circular needles (TEENY!) for that purpose, but honestly another tiny-yarn project is not what I need right now. Also I obviously don't want to get any new yarn because I have tons at the moment. I have reasons not to do half the stuff in my queue lol... it's too early for a sweater... I'm already striping with the bag so I don't want to do the zebras, and the other stuff I don't have yarn for or is again tiny or wintery! :P Bahhhhh. Maybe I'll do the boot toppers to match the sweater. I mean it's kind of wintery and the patons yarn isn't that big but it's definitely bulkier than the other two I'm using rn. The other non-project project I've been thinking about doing is knitting a big gauge swatch with all my needles - or most of them. That's sort of on hold, too since I'd want to do it with the knitpicks interchangeable circulars and two of them are in action right now on the beach bag and the cover up.

Well we shall see what I get up to next, or if I decide to be patient and wait until I'm done the beach bag at the very least. (As Sally Bowles would say, "I doubt it, Cliff!"

"Cori B" short for "Cori Beth"
was a childhood nickname

OH! And this past weekend I finally finished Dad's golf club covers, which I need to get in the mail soon for his birthday on June 25th! They're not perfect, but I hope he likes them. I also got these funny/cutesy custom labels and sewed one in to the largest cover.

Ends and Beginnings

Lots to update!

Biggest accomplishment is that I am oh so near the finish line on mom's blanket. All the squares are sewn together (so it looks quite blanket-like!) and I have started on the i-cord which gave me some grief at first but I think I'm doing alright with it now, bit tedious. Speaking of which I'll also be weaving in of ten thousand ends... some of which look like I left them rather short. Then I have to decide whether to wait all the way until Christmas to give it to her, or to bring it to FL when I go for Amanda's wedding and call it an early birthday present.

oh god so many ends

I haven't touched the Jadis since my last entry and honestly am considering putting into hibernation for quite some time.

I started a new project (shame on me since I haven't finished one) - which is the Medano Beach bag Pretty excited about it even though I've already done a fair amount of fudging considering I only started it yesterday :P Had some trouble picking up stitches (surprise surprise) although I think I may not have knit enough rows in the first place and miscounted when I checked. Anyway I am relatively confident it's not going to have a huge effect. I just did a few increases to get the stitch count up before the section with the planned increases (and later decreases) so hopefully it will all work out. I am doing it in knitpicks cotlin which I'm enjoying working with and OF COURSE it's in black and white ;) I actually need to add the additional cotlin to my stash on Ravelry now that I think about it. I bought a bunch of skeins of both black and white - tbh probably more than I'll need for the bag, but hey - talk about versatile colors and yarn. :P

bottom of the bag; starting on the body

In other knitting news: I really need to stop procrastinating on the pom poms for dad's golf covers. I need to make at least one more and then just attach the damn things and finally be done with that project.

The other project I have going is the beach cover -up. I think it's going to be really cute, but knitting with the weird yarn is not the most satisfying experience. It's a discontinued one called Patons Divine. I love the pseudo-lace effect it creates, but it's a bit off-putting to knit with a yarn that goes back and forth between thick and thin. But I do think that the cover-up and the bag will look really cute with my black and white polka dot bathing suit and it makes sense to be knitting summer stuff considering the pending move to FL! If I can just get the two parent projects done, I'll have the two beach items going and maaaaaybe I'll consider giving the Jadis another go.

Lace is for Masochists

This morning I had to rip the Jadis shawl back to the end of the short rows. So that's row 1-5 of the chart which took about 3 freaking hours because of how slow and careful I was trying to be and also because lace knitting is just slow going for me anyway. The worst part was that somehow 1/3 of my lifeline at the 195 stitch mark came out, otherwise I would have been able to rip back to there instead and not lost all of the lace. Sigh. Starting to wonder if I will ever be able to conquer this. :|

On Sunday I began the blocking process for the afghan squares that are done. I'm nearly done with the second rosebud trellis and after that the only one left is the second beansprouts square. The second rosebud trellis is going to be pretty perfect compared to the fudgy first one which makes me wonder if I should re-do that one, but I think I am gonna be lazy.

I also need to finally finish the golf club covers. I meant to do that this weekend, but I worked on the shawl instead and of course that all went down the drain. :(

annnnnnd oh my god but I think I am realizing that I didn't even do the first part of the shawl right. I think I went from the twisted stitches into the short rows without doing the snowflakes chart. Don't think I can bring myself to go back that far again. Christ.

One trellis down

Finished the first Rosebud Trellis square today! Some definite fudging at the end and I do have a line of the delft blue where I don't really want it. I've started the second one and I know it will be a lot easier now that I know the big picture. I may end up re-doing the first one if I find that the error really drives me insane, but I'll climb that trellis when I get to it. One more rosebud trellis and one more beansprouts square and then I will be ready to piece them all together! Well... to see if they CAN be pieced together or whether I need to re-knit the evil eyelet heart squares to a smaller size. I shudder at the thought.

Note tiny zigzag line of Delft blue after third row of rosebuds. Oy.
Also dear lord that was a lot of ends to weave in.

I also took some time tonight to write some fairly detailed notes on my project page that hopefully help out future knitters.

O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Been a minute since I've updated - probably due to lack of interesting progress.

The beach cover-up is coming along okay and it's what I've worked on most.

I think it's going to be cute! The yarn is so bizarre. It's really fun how it looks like lace without having to actually do complicated lace pattern stuff. I'm a bit worried about having enough yarn, especially since it's discontinued (I bought mine off someone else on ravelry. Then again another person who did the project said she needed fewer than the ten skeins the pattern calls for, so maybe it will all be fine.

Did finally start in on the fourth golf club cover last night and it's nearly done. Have just decided that they aren't going to be as neat as I'd like when it comes to the ribbing. I have one more pom pom to make for those as well. I did get a chance to slip them on the clubs when I was down in Florida and they worked okay. Not thrilled with them but so it goes. Hopefully Dad likes them okay.

I brought my sweater down to FL and finally did the blocking. It wasn't done drying yet before I had to leave, so I left it there. Rather heartbreaking, actually! Going to have dad mail it to me soon even though it's already far too warm for wool sweaters in NYC.

After the trellis frustrations I took a long break from Mom's afghan. Played with it for a second last night and promptly put it away again. I may post on r/knitting for help. It seems like the bobble stitch is effectively a decrease?? Is it yet another mistake in the pattern? Oy.

Have also played a bit with the Jadis scarf. Still on the short rows which (see title) are terribly unsatisfying. Also I'm already worrying about the concealing the wraps step.

Arm acting up again which is frustrating for sure. Need to do those physical therapy stretches and exercises I guess :/

In other news it is both hot and dark in my apartment, neither of which are conducive to knitting. Bah.

Trellis Hell and Sock Tangent

Everything seemed to be going so well...

Today is my first day back at work since being out sick last week on Thursday and Friday. Was basically stuck on my couch for four days. Friday after the tragic frogging of the Jadis I did manage to finish the second peas and carrots square for the afghan. Blanking a bit on the details (surprised I don't have a phone pic!) but I also finished the first of the bean sprouts squares I think on Saturday. I tried to get going on the rosebud trellis square but what a nightmare. The pattern is wrong and so I'm working with a ravelerer's notes but after about four false starts I gave it up as a bad job for the day. I did also get around to washing the beer stains out of the white eyelet heart square. Definitely a bit concerned about how much larger the two lace squares are than the other squares. I shudder to think that I might need to re-knit both of them with smaller needles or something in the end. :/

Sunday I spent some time playing around with Pom Poms for Dad's golf club covers. I used the method in this video instead of ways I've done it in the past and was pretty pleased with the results. Man it's kind of a wrench making them though because it feels like SUCH a waste of yarn. Makes sense that decorative stuff was always for the rich - it's a waste of material for a purely aesthetic addition. Still frustrated with the laddering problem in the ribbed section of the covers, but honestly I am probably just going to accept it. He's not that picky of a person. I don't have any issues with laddering when I'm working in stockinette but for ribbing it keeps cropping up - and the k1 p2 rib in the golf club pattern is even worse than just a k1 p1 rib which I seem to be able to do okay on dpns.

What is this? A SOCK FOR GIANTS?

Since I wasn't ready to re-start the Jadis and I was feeling pretty over the afghan squares after fighting with the rosebud trellis, I decided to try and go back to the Easy Peasy Socks pattern and got about 2/3 done with the purple sparkly yarn. Gauge is wayyyy off (surprise surprise) so if I do finish it, it will be a very impractical and large sock. :P I got to starting the decreases leading up to the toe and then set it aside and started the pattern over with smaller yarn and needles. Have that with me today at work. The end of the pattern calls for the kitchener stitch to finish the toe. I've read and watched videos on how to do it, but never made an attempt -- we shall see how I do!