Thursday, September 13, 2007

I passed. Can I knit now?

It's been a while, hasn't it?

For those interested, there is a direct and negative correlation between dissertation writing and knitting production.



I valiantly tried to knit through the entire month leading up to my defense (which included a trip to a conference in California with a baby). It was not successful. My project of choice? The mystery shawl. Who was it who said complicated lace and dissertations don't mix? That would be me.

So to recap the knitting:
1. Mystery shawl. I got to the third chart and abandoned it. It wasn't for the mistakes (though there had been several). It wasn't for the complicated nature of the beast. Really, it was because it was a beast, a swan to be specific. When the theme was revealed, I lost all interest. It's sitting quietly in a bag, awaiting the frog pond and greener pastures.

2. Black socks for Eric. Good grief. I lost interest in these months ago.

3. Shedir hat. I cast on for this and frogged it the same night. Love the pattern. Love the yarn. Don't love them together.

4. Various other projects were cast on and I don't remember them now.

5. Sunrise circle jacket. It's on, baby. Love the yarn (Brooks Farm Solana). It's like knitting with cherry juice (and I said so on Ravelry user name: Jeneric). I ripped the back once, to tidy up my darts. I'm now chugging along at a slow but respectable speed. Fingers crossed that this jacket is both wearable and a pleasure to wear.

6. Just last night, the yarn arrived for Absorba, the great bathmat. Those folks at Elmore Pigsah sure are quietly efficient. I ordered three cones of the Peaches and Cream Double Worsted Sunday evening and heard not a peep until Wednesday afternoon when a little e-mail alert notified me that it had arrived on my doorstep. I cast on PDQ (pretty darn quickly) and immediately noticed two things: (1) cotton is not wool nor does it pretend to be; (2) knitting with US 13 needles is gawd awful. I feel like I've lost the use of my thumbs or been stuck in a hoggy faze. Nevertheless, I love the resulting fabric and I will stick with this project until I have a bathmat. Or lose all feeling in my wrists, whichever comes first.

2 comments:

Teresa said...

I am sure that graph was made in haste. I think you have the x axis wrong. According to the graph - the closer you get to the defense your stitches per day increases? That doesn't seem right...

Can't wait to see pics.

how is Michigan?

Wily Jeneric said...

Oh, grr. No, the graph was made correctly, but in transferring it from one program to another, the axis got inverted. Trust me: Macs are from Mars, PCs are from Venus.