The details

Last night I finished the first in the pair of socks that I'm working on.  I decided to make it a cuff sock because that's the kind I prefer to wear.  I don't know what I did exactly but the bind-off is a tad tight.  It doesn't bother me once I get it on, but it's a shimmy to get over the arch and heel of my foot.  Feet are such weird things.

Then I started immediately on the second sock.  I've been reading a lot of knitting blogs lately and apparently there is a condition out there where people never get around to knitting the second sock.  I find that shocking, really.  What's one sock without its mate?  Lost and lonely and forever sitting there without a purpose.  Just not a good thing.

So, I started the second sock, and I was apparently tired.  Because I tried Judy's Magic Cast-On, which I did with the previous sock and then came to work and showed it to a collegue.  (watch the video, it's really quite entertaining even if you don't knit and if you do, wow!  What a great provisional cast-on!), and I couldn't make it work.  I tried again, to no avail.  Tried once more and got the cast on but couldn't figure out how to knit from it.  It was crazy.  I had to watch the video again and darn it if I didn't miss one tiny little detail step.  The tiny little detail that meant that my stitches would just fall off the needle and not knit.  Knitting is funny that way.

While I don't agonize about the tiny details the way a lot of people do, I do like for things to be done right and I do think that paying attention to the details makes a very big difference.  I try not to get annoyed when people don't pay attention to the details that I pay attention to, but sometimes I can't help myself.  And I know that I annoy people because I let some things slip away that they care about.

When crafting or doing art, however, it's the details that make the difference between something that gets finished and something that people really enjoy or connect with. With my craft and art I try very hard to pay attention to the details, but apparently I've been letting things slip lately. 

For instance, on the bee quilt, Alyssa and I were making the same mistake over and over.  We didn't do it the last time we worked on it.  So, next time we work on it we have to go back to the pattern and pay attention.  there's clearly a step we thought we remembered but didn't.  Also, on my secret project I made a crucial calculation error that is going to require a couple more hours of work than necessary.  That's frustrating and easily fixed by paying attention.

But, apparently details aren't my thing right now.  I need easy, no-brainer crafting to work on right now.

Today's picture is of the lovely little sock on my foot.  The detail of the "arch expansion" creating a wedge is awesome and my favorite thing about this sock next to how intuitive it was to turn the heel.