Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The difference a stitch makes

A couple of posts ago (on Saturday) I decided to leave off one sock project for another.  I was making a gorgeous "Celebrate Spring" sock that had a pretty chevron lace type pattern that required a double decrease.  I have a tetchy relationship with lace...it's gorgeous, I love it, I want it, but I don't always like knitting it.

I find that when knitting lace I have to concentrate, which isn't always a bad thing, but lately concentration isn't easy to come by.  With the Celebrate Spring socks, concentration wasn't the issue.  I was easily able to get into a rhythm with the pattern...or the stitches that I needed to do...the executing of the stitches was something else.

And it's funny because I was doing the exact same double decrease on a shawl at the same time I was doing the double decrease on the sock, but the sock just didn't feel right.

So, I put the sock down, as I mentioned at the end of last week, thought on it over night, and then ripped it out Saturday morning to cast on for a new pattern.  I'm now doing Elm by Cookie A and my what a difference a pattern makes.

And it's funny because:

  • I really dislike purling through the back loop
  • I have to concentrate on the pattern every other round, just like I would with a lace pattern
  • I absolutely adore knitting this sock.
I wish I could make sense of what it is I like about this sock, even though there are some stitches that I don't like, and what I disliked about the Celebrate Spring sock because I would like to be able to better choose patterns that are going to get along with me.  I want to know before I get started that I'm going to be able to finish a pattern...not that I'm going to be avoiding it because I'm frustrated with one little bit of it or another.

Maybe I just need to get over the concept that not finishing a project and deciding to rip it out is part of the process of knitting...that it's ok because the yarn is still usable and pretty and the finished result is going to be wonderful and nice.  But it's so hard when I feel like I've wasted time on a project that didn't get finished...I need to learn to redefine that "wasting"...

Today's picture is of the kitties sun bathing a couple of days ago.  We had a brief day of sunshine--it's rainy and cloudy again today--but on Saturday it was glorious!

No comments:

Post a Comment