It's been awfully quiet and a Love/Hate relationship

It has been awfully quiet around Chez YarnDiet the past couple of weeks.

You an tell by the lack of blogging and knitting projects that there hasn't been a lot going on that I can blog about. 

I guess some people get worried when there is no knitting showing up either here or on Ravelry...No, I didn't give in and kill someone, there is still knitting going on, but there has been an awful lot of frogging going on too!  In fact, I am working up the nerve to frog the latest cast on now.

I have been trying to learn a new technique....it isn't particularly hard, millions of other knitters seem to be able to do it just fine, but I have been struggling with it.  I cast on, think I have everything lined up, get a few rows in and....it's wrong.  I frog what I have and start again.

I think my yarn hates me!

Once again, I cast on and double check what I have, everything looks fine right now....get a few rows in and my pattern doesn't line up.

Try again.

Honestly, this yarn does hate me, because yet again, no dice on the lining up the pattern.

As the instructions are simple and I double, even triple counted my way through the initial rows, I think that maybe that portion of the yarn doesn't want to behave so rather than frog back to the beginning I grab the largest, nastiest looking scissors I can find and cut the offending stitches away from the rest of the ball.  That will teach them to mess with me, right?  Maybe the rest of the yarn will learn from them and behave.

Back to the cast on I go.

This time I did something different, something that is so unlike me I am surprised I even agreed to it!  You see, I have this love-hate relationship with stitch markers.  I think that some of them are the most adorable little things in the world.  I just can't abide them in my knitting!  They slow me down, duck under yarn overs when working lace, if you have any possibility of them opening enough to be on a stitch rather than between them they find it and take advantage.  But....sigh.....maybe, just maybe if I add those stitch markers to my cast on row things will line up when I need them to.

In the mean time, I might have cast on another baby blanket and knit a few more rounds on the red sweater for TFB.  I really like that I don't have to keep track of how many rows are in the back of the sweater to match for the front, working in the round does have that advantage but I am ready for some patterning, plain knit around and around and around for what feels like miles and has already been 4 balls of superwash wool is getting a little boring!  Good thing I started this one six months before it needs to be complete, I might just make it there!

The baby blanket is another version of Pierina Shawl worked as a square rather than a triangle.  This time I am putting the color changes in, the mom to be has decided that she wants yellow.  Specifically she asked for Rubber Ducky Yellow, and I can tell you I looked like six kinds of fool in the yarn section of Joanne's Fabric and Crafts with a rubber ducky in my pocket comparing it to various yarns, the one that was a perfect match in color of course being completely the wrong weight and very fuzzy, so I went with "close enough is good enough".

I love how quickly you appear to be making progress in the early stages of a center start shawl.  While waiting my turn at the doctors office the receptionist was quite impressed as it seemed to double in size in the time I was there.

Oh well, I am off to frog some knitting!

Have a great week.

~M