Schrodinger's Kittie

Well, lovely weekend. I got zero work done on Kiri or the Ark or the Clover socks. The only thing that got work was Picovoli. Why? Well, because Picovoli I can do anywhere without a chart in hand. I was running around like a mad woman this weekend, when I wasn’t being called out by work. When you are sitting in front of your computer trying to troubleshoot a BGP failure issue from one coast to the next, you really can’t be staring at a chart and keeping count. *chuckles*

But, when it’s just pure ss, you can troubleshoot to your heart’s content and never have to look down at your hands. That’s a major bonus. Generally only something I can accomplish when I’m crocheting. My speed is more where you can tell how new to knitting I am. Having crocheted 26 years and only been knitting a couple, well…it’s pretty obvious which one I can do in my sleep. Knitting requires more concentration just because I haven’t been doing it quite long enough for it to be something I can just ignore while doing something else. Yes, I often watch the telly or whatnot if I’m knitting a simple garter stitch or stockinette or something that is amazingly simple repeat like a 3×2 rib or whatever. But when it comes to colourwork (re: Ark and Clover) or lace (re: Kiri), I have to pay attention. Or I get really cranky. Really, really cranky.

I have to admit a big part of why I haven’t done any additional work on the Ark since last weekend is because I’m torn between frogging the last three rows to get rid of those extraneous three dots of colour or just pushing on and doing duplicate stitch there. What’s got me quaking in fear is that I’m totally off and I’m going to have this gaping area on one side that is glaringly missing a pattern. Prolly be best to rip it out and shift where the pattern starts by three stitches so that at least I have an equally empty space on each side. **le sigh**

I guess I just answered my question. It’s froggy time. At least it’s only 3 rows…maybe 4.

While Kiri is going painfully slow – a) slow knitter, b) a couple of projects and c) too much other stuff going on – it is coming along really nicely. I messed up once or twice, but the lovely thing is that the mess ups were in places that a visit to the frog pond wasn’t necessary.

The clover socks look really nice, though there are some really dark sections to the copper Koigu KPM (colour 1220 on this card) that I’m using that winds up really blending into the black. Not a spectacular thing, but I’m going to keep on going. At one point, I’d thought I’d forgotten a colour stitch and realized that it was just a really, really dark spot in the copper. I really like the colour combination, and I know I will wear them. If I make these to give away or something, I will be sure to use colourways that don’t have blips of colour that’re too close to each other.

See, I knit slow enough that I can’t really have 12 projects going at once and actually get anywhere. So…having the few projects I have in place mean that I get nowhere even more slowly. *chuckles*

Regardless, I started on my clover socks last night. I’m really loving how the colors work together and the design appears to be showing just like I was hoping it would. There’s not enough to photograph, right now, but as soon as I’m done with the first pattern repeat, I’ll share what it looks like.

Absolutely nothing else has been accomplished other than that I’ve burned a few more brain cells at work. *grimace* Speaking of which…back to the grind.

I’ve been doing lace knitting for a while now. I was explaining ring shawls to my sweetie, tonight and…Well, here’s how the conversation played out:

Kilsharion: you know that lace shawl I’m making for your niece?
Sweetie: ja
Kilsharion: I just got my pattern in for my wedding ring shawl
Kilsharion: it makes the one you’ve seen look like child’s play
Kilsharion: there are only 500 copies of the pattern available – and looking at the instructions just made my eyes cross
Kilsharion: LMAO
Sweetie: wow
Kilsharion: it’s just for me, so there will be no rush in making it.

Kilsharion: that’s what it looks like – kinda. heh – it’s hard to get the full impact of it – but a 6′ x 6′ square fits through a man’s size 11 ring.
Kilsharion: basically, a 6′x6′ shawl will weigh around 3oz. The shawl will contain a bit under 4,000 yards of gossamer thread.
Sweetie: yeesh
Kilsharion: LOL – is that a “yeesh” of “wow, that’s amazing” or “yeesh” of “you have to be insane woman” ?
Sweetie: little of both.
Kilsharion: hee hee hee
Kilsharion: well, the insanity is a bit of a given
Kilsharion: for me, it’s about the challenge. Sometimes I have to do something just to see if I can. I mean, if I stayed with what I knew I could do…well…it wouldn’t exactly get boring, but I wouldn’t grow in my craft any, either.