Thursday, January 8, 2015

Pile o' knittin'

That hot mess on my kitchen table is my Common Ground in progress.

It's hard to contain.

As you can see I'm getting somewhere with it and I'm going to get it done by Monday. TRUST.

Every time I look at it as a whole though, I start twitching. It's the "hood". The word gets quotation marks because that hood is going to be decorative at best, even when I add in two inches of ribbing. I went back over the instructions, and I SWEARs it, I did follow the pattern, my precious. I do notice a few "issues" with the hood in other knitter's notes ... after the fact of course.


It doesn't matter if it's not functional.

Really, it doesn't. I'm taking a page from WoolyThyme's rabbit hole and saying "Whatever" and I'm gonna mean it too.

I think what is unsettling about this project is the closer I get to finishing the less I'm liking it. Does this ever happen to you?  I'm preparing to drop this baby at the fire station if you know what I'm sayin'. This may just be the race to the finish line talking.

I just need to calm myself and keep my eye on the prize. Socks. I'm going to sock crazy town with the MSK group and trying the Personal Mystery Sock Yarn Club .  I actually grabbed sock yarn out of my homemade mystery sock box that was from a Downton Abbey Mystery KAL that I failed to do, ha! I think I will try either Hermione's Everyday socks or Show-off Stranded socks. If you have an opinion on a pattern, let me know. I think I'll go back to plain stockinette after that, just to keep the momentum of socks going.

I think while I'm at it, I'll risk the wrath of the knitting world and admit, the shine for the show Downton Abbey has completely faded for me. I didn't make it through the first episode of the new season. I might try again, but I'm not feeling the need to try very hard. I still appreciate it though.

You know what I was in love with the other night on tv? Murder in the Caribbean with Ms. Marple, the newest version. Ms. Marple knits even on the turquoise edge of a beach, gotta love her, right?

 What's in your pile o' knittin'? What are you enjoying watching or listening to as your needles go clickety clack? What are you feelings on Agatha Christie? Can we still be friends ;)

13 comments:

  1. Yes, I've canned or donated projects after they turned out less than I expected. Go ahead and do it if would make you feel better - someone will love it.

    I knit only Plain Jane (stockinette) socks. I can't see the reason to fuss with lace and other designs. I want functional and warm socks - no purposeful lace holes for me!

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  2. Smashing progress on your hoodie. Yes, I can lag when I'm toward the end.

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  3. Well, if the HOOD is the only part you don't like, could you leave it off? Or maybe when you finish it, someone ELSE will like it --- OR maybe you will like it more than you think you do now.

    If not --- there is always the frog pond.

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  4. I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one who lost interest in this season's Downton Abbey. I was all excited about it and when I actually sat down and watched it, I was all meh. They were all too whiney and I didn't want to hear it. I too love Miss Marple. I want to be her.
    I've done two sweaters that had hoods that had to be redone and then finally removed. My Central Park and some other awful cable thing that now lives under the bed. No more hoods for me.

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  5. My pile is an ant hill right now, just the start of a shawl. The watching is Netflix and so sad that I have gone through all the Poirots available! Almost tempted to go back and watch through them again. But maybe I should give Marple another try. The first one I started watching was sooooo ancient it was laughable at the poor staging and production. Maybe I should watch them in reverse order?

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  6. I tend to finish my questionable knits and put them in time out. like for a few seasons, then I pull them out, my feelings have diminished and i can critique the knit with fairness. Most of the time I have kept the knit, and then I have at times frogged the whole sweater.

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  7. You are definitely not alone in the department of "Do I still like this?". I have knitted a many of sweaters that I have finished and never wore and it's OK in my humble opinion. My sister and I have also been known to swap knitted items after we have finished them because they suited the other person better. I say if the hood is your only issue though, just keep it hanging. You already know how I feel about the Hermione socks!

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  8. Knitting on the turquoise edge of a beach sounds utterly blissful. Alas I am having to make do with the grey edge of a small town. I know what you mean about getting to the end of something and thinking, "Oh". It happens regarlaly to me. But as you say, eyes on the prize, socks are on the horizon. CJ xx

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  9. Of course we are still pals. Pretend pals but pals! I don't watch the D. Abbey. I think I m the only woman in the USA who doesnt.
    I hope your hood works out. I feel frantic when I get close to the end and its not turning out! There. there my friend, I hope it casts off well.
    I'm watching lots of sports: Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks are doing well and we are in winter mode.

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  10. hi ellen! i tried watching "abbey" but i just couldn't get into it ... i wanted too, i tried too, i just couldn't :(
    im still working on the hubs socks...one, he has one sock & even it isn't done. i just received some quince & co yarn so that's my incentive to get his one sock done & get the second started.
    i've knit things before that i just wasn't crazy about. i made myself finish the project thinking i would like it more when it was complete....no so
    i frog it or give it to someone that appreciates my efforts : ) happy weekending!

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  11. I can't sympathize with you on the sweater because I have never come that close to finishing one!
    I love Hermoine's Everyday Socks. A fast and easy-to-memorize pattern.
    I lost interest in Downtown Abby a while ago. They had to make all those odd plot twists to accommodate people leaving the cast. I thing that's where it went downhill.

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  12. It the hood is only decorative, why not remove it and finish the neck with the same kind of ribbing on the rest of the sweater? Hoods are huge and time consuming! Had to laugh at your use of "hot mess" as it's the name of the pattern I'm doing, a headband. We'll be watching the Seahawks later today...

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  13. Hoods are overrated, they mess with your hair and create a lot of static. But they are fun to look at on a sweater. I am not in love with Downton anymore, there I have said it. They move too quickly through the period, I mean could all this time possible have passed by so quickly and yet they aren't very much older? I look at the fashions, which I love mind you and they are already jumping decades.
    Of well I did muddle thorough the first episode but only because I had knitting in my hands.
    Meredith

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