Monday, November 05, 2007

Knitting not Computing

I found it impossible to balance blogging, Ravelry and knitting so I took several days off from blogging. This week I am going to try to stay out of Ravelry as much as possible. There are only so many hours in a day. I have designated weekends for lace knitting when I have natural light to help read the stitches. Week nights for everything else. I was able to make progress on three of my lace projects while doing laundry Saturday. It was fantastic, the inches I added are really noticeable. But as soon as I went upstairs and turned on the laptop, the project I was working on suffered. I cast on and ripped out the Mystic Waters shawl 4 or 5 times - honestly I lost count. I was reading forum posts and scrolling through my stash. And I would set the work down for a few seconds and be lost when I picked it back up. Or I would notice a mistake a few rows back when I picked it up and stretched it. What's up with that? Is it semi-alzheimers? Of course I did not jot a note or anything since I was just putting the piece down to quickly reply to a post or a message. How could it slip my mind that quickly what I had done last?

Of course, most of the problem lays in being a perfectionist. When I knit a sweater or vest I will fudge, add a stitch if I lose one - or K2TOG if I have one stitch too many. But not with lace. I don't want a stitch out of place. The Zephyr 2/18 wool silk I am using does not tink well, so frogging was required. Luckily I was not far enough into the shawl that it was a huge number of rows. Which is also why there was not a lifeline, the piece wasn't big enough. I really enjoy knitting this shawl, I did not even mind knitting it over and over and over again. It is so pretty, I want mine to be perfect. So I will start it again this weekend. Granted we will have the 3rd clue by then and I will be a couple of hundred rows behind in the knit along. But I don't really care about that. This shawl is going to be beautiful so I want mine to be perfect.

I have my yarn now for the swatches for the TKGA Basics Basics Basic course. I will be starting on that this week between sock knitting. I have one pair of socks almost finished and two first socks almost finished. So I should be completing 3 pairs of socks this week. We are having company this weekend which is going to rob me of several precious knitting hours. :(

Exciting - I received the name of my Ebony Elite Scarf Swap pal. We like the same color yarns, but not the same manufacturer. Her favorite yarn is one of the ones I have never liked and don't have any in my stash. I don't have much info on her yet either, so I will have to send her an e-mail and see what non-knitting things she likes. My spoiler e-mailed me yesterday and I need to answer her. I was frogging my shawl for the 3rd or 4th time and decided it was time to log off the computer, so I did not send a reply last night.

I am working on staff evaluations today, most of them will be easy and pleasant. But I have one person on probation and two I have been receiving many complaints about. Those won't be so simple to write.

I'd rather be knitting !!!!!

3 comments:

Adrienne said...

Ravelry will COMPLETELY suck your time away...do NOT ask me how I know! LOL

Virtuous said...

I SO feel the same way...it is honestly stressing me out. Do you know how much knitting I could get done if I stayed away from the computer!! Very sad!

And I know just how you feel about having company or things to do and all you can think of "how far along I could be on such and such project"! Haha! :oD

Lets commit to at least one night on the computer!!!

Anne said...

It's a fine line between reveling in the community and wanting to do the knitting that makes you a part of the community, isn't it? Don't worry -- your sock angel is multitasking as fast as she can ...