Too Cold!

Damn, but it's cold. Sub-zero. And it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow (although the high is supposedly going to be higher... maybe around 6).

So what does one do when it really is too cold to venture outside--aside from chores, mind you...I don't want to waste my weekends doin' no steenkin' chores?

Why, knit, of course!

So that's what I've been doing. Last week (when it wasn't quite so cold) I finished knitting the first sweater of the year. I haven't gotten around to sewing up yet (my least favorite part of the process), but I think the yarn is way cool. It is called "Foliage," and it is by Berroco:



And here is the pile of knitting it produced:



TODAY, though, I'm working on the piece I started earlier in the year and had to rip back. Instead of the black fuzzy yarn I started with, I'm now using a nice heathery rose yarn called "Whisky" by Reynolds. It's working ups quite nicely:



You can see the pattern very clearly--something that was decidedly lacking in the previous attempt. I think it was fortuitous that I dropped that damned stitch on the earlier version, even if it was a pain in the ass at the time.

I promise that this will not turn into a knitting blog. It's just that, well, it's so cozy to sit indoors on such a cold day and play with wool.

Knitting Lessons

No, I don't need them--I've been knitting since I was eight. But sometimes the very process of knitting results in life lessons...

To the point: I just had to rip back the piece I've been working on, entirely. I posted a picture of the sweater in my last entry. I hadn't gotten all that far--only about four/five inches of the back--but far enough that tearing it up was emotionally painful. A fair amount of time invested, and seemingly for naught.

What happened? Well, I dropped a stitch. Not usually cause for such drastic action, since dropped stitches can be picked up and any laddering remedied without much effort or angst. But this pattern is fairly complicated, with a couple of different stitch charts per row, and I was working with black yarn--black yarn with a bit of mohair. The pattern, the yarn color, and the yarn's texture all conspired to hide the stitch in question.

And then...I started second-guessing myself. Had I been working that portion of the pattern wrong all along? Maybe so. Since I couldn't find the dropped stitch, maybe it was never there in the first place (even though, deep down, I KNEW I had cast on the correct number and that I had been working the pattern correctly only a few rows before). And the same factors that were hiding the dropped stitch would also hide a surreptitious increase, right? So, rather than rip back a few rows (such a pain, what with cables and yarn-overs and such), I just added the missing stitch and soldiered on.

Until I saw it, laddering its way through the column of ribbing, almost directly in the middle of the back. I'd have to rip out at least half of what I'd done. And, truth be told, I haven't been all that excited about how the yarn was working up--that little bit of fuzzy mohair--the texture that was so friendly about hiding imperfections--also obscures the rather sharp edges of the pattern.

So I decided the best thing to do was to tear back, return the yarn to the stash, find a yarn that will enhance the pattern rather than hide it, and start again.

As I said--at least I was only a few inches into the first piece.

And that's where the life lesson comes in--sometimes you just need to admit the mistake, go back to square one, and make the attempt anew.

And they say knitting is a calming exercise.

Feh.

Updates on Various Stuff

I know everyone is on pins and needles as to how I'm coming along with all those typical New Year's resolutions. Well, comme ci, comme ca.

I haven't done much writing on the novel, but I have been reading back through it and tweaking stuff here and there. It had been so long since I'd worked on it that I forgot the last name of one of the characters and made him up a new one, which I like better. I didn't think I'd used his last name much in the first part, but I misremembered. After I changed it for the twelfth time, I suddenly remembered the find and replace feature. Oh well, it's been a useful exercise. I think I may get back to some actual writing sometime next week. Jeff expects to see a draft on April 1 (Go Fools!), so I really should get crackin'.

On the getting in shape front, well, I've been less than completely conscientious. However, I have not been a slug, either. I start out the week with every good intention, and I follow up. But then other things intervene, I lose motivation, and shirk my workouts on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays. I'll try to do better. And I've set a goal: I want to be in much, much better shape by the time I get my braces off (due around mid-August, if all goes according to plan)--and I want to run the Ricky Byrdsong 5K again this spring--knees permitting.

No, I haven't picked up the guitar yet.

Yes, I have picked up the knitting needles--I'm working on this:



I have two other projects in that same magazine that I want to tackle.

I think that takes care of the resolutions... now for an orthodontia update.

I'm still not used to having a honking big wire attached to my upper teeth, but a whole world of dental hygiene has opened up to me. Who knew there were such things as floss threaders? Or interproximal brushes? I mean, this is my second go-round with braces, and all this stuff is news to me! Keeping my teeth clean takes much longer than it did pre-braces (the floss threading alone is your whoreson devourer of time... and if I do take up the guitar again and cut my fingernails, it will take that much longer--one needs fingernails to get a purchase on the end of that threader, believe me). But I have a wonderful new device to aid in the cause: a SonicCare electric toothbrush. That baby is something! It scrubs like crazy, massages your gums, scours between teeth and around brackets, and even shuts off automatically after two minutes. To get the proper cleaning experience, just keep brushing until it stops and voila! Clean, clean, clean teeth!

Of course, there is the pain problem. It's not too bad, but since the goal is to close that obnoxious gap between my middle two incisors, one of them has constant pressure on it via some elastic thread stuff to move it toward the other. And that one tooth is always pretty tender. Which means that I use my molars way more than my incisors nowadays... and that's not always easy. Or comfortable. Or sightly. But hey--I can see the gap narrowing a little more each couple of days... yea!

Then there is the lower retainer, which I was sure would keep me up all night the first time I wore it. It didn't. I got used to it pretty fast. But it's amazing how well it appears to fit each morning and how tight it is each night. Oh well, it's all for a good cause, huh? My vanity. Heh.