Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Knitting Hiatus

I have been having a hard time with knitting. Every time I knit I start missing people I'll probably not get to see again any time soon, and it saddens me. On the other hand, I am glad to have moved to a different place in my head, and enjoying more time with my family--it's been so much fun having both boys at home this summer. When I am not working, we have done a lot of fun stuff. One, I am teaching Beccano to drive (parent-led course). That leads to a lot of bonding. We are almost done, too! Two, we cleaned the heck out of my 55-gallon aquarium and are making it a much happier home for fishies. That is taking a while, but fish have lived there a whole month now without dying! And three (the big one) we re-did our kitchen! If you want to see the pictures, going from "before" to "after," go here. Here's the aquarium.
Aquarium before fish and before I put in more plants.

I have tried twice to get back on track with the shawl I am working on. I made a mistake on a transition row between patterns and just can't get the row right. I have ripped and ripped, and ripping double decreases leads to more issues. My plan, when I have a few hours to myself, is to put a marker between each repeat next time. And just stop and count EVERY repeat until I get that row right. Then I should be able to move on. But, I feel pretty incompetent to not be able to knit a perfectly straightforward pattern.

I did finish two pairs of socks since we last interacted. Here are the Flaming Desire socks and the Bruce socks that I finished.
Flaming Desire Socks in Pagewood Farm yarn.

Note that the tops differ. I like the one with more flame points, but not enough to re-knit them.
I have a picture of these on my feet, but it's on my other camera. These are Knitivity sock yarn.

Also, I have finished a pair that I hadn't even shown the start on. These are ankle socks in Panda Soy. I like the yarn a lot, though it likes to unravel itself and you have to take care to not split it. The fabric is really soft and has a wonderful feel. I look forward to wearing them next time I wear shoes that socks go with.
I need a better photo, but you get the idea. Generic toe-up socks, ankle length.
Yes, you read me right. I am not wearing socks this summer. I don't even want to LOOK at stuff I knitted. The only thing I have worn is my red cotton top that looks so nice you can't tell it was hand-made.

Don't worry. I'll be back to knitting and loving it again at some point. I've taken little breaks a couple of other times in my life. 18 years ago when I had small children, for example, I did a lot of needlepoint. Right now I am playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. That is totally NOT productive, and I don't recommend it.

I've started another simple pair of socks in some interesting Trekking yarn. It's a prototype of a colorway called Autumn Fire.
It is knitting up very pretty--mostly gray but with lovely spots of red and purple. I will try to show it when I have more to show.

I'd love to hear from any readers still hanging around. I have been getting a lot of spam comments, and I sure wish Blogger would block those!

4 comments:

  1. I'm still reading! I know what you mean about missing people. I've gone back to pretty much solo knitting, the groups around here are nowhere near as good as the group in TX. I really need to just get off my rear and start posting things to revelry or my blog so I can feel like I'm sharing my projects LOL. Hope you get back to knitting happily soon!

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  2. Your Flaming Desire socks have given me the flaming desire to knit some. Great job!

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  3. I have been on a knitting hiatus for since about May also! I don't know why, but I can't stand it. I'm going to go stash diving today through my sock yarn and see if there is any yarn that makes my heart go pitter-patter.

    Oh, yes, and I have a shawl otn, now where was I on that?

    Keep posting, I haven't did a blog post since June!

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  4. Sock yarn can always perk one up!

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