So much knitting, so little to show
Over the last week, I must have knit thousands of stitches in total. A few furious inches here, some leisurely centimetres there. The days were crazy and involved much running around reading endless admissions files and preparing syllabi and course-packets. But the evenings were quiet. My Netflix supply was well-oiled, with lots of long, mindless, Hindi melodrama on full tap. I knit an awful lot of stitches. I should have not one, but two Cobblestone sleeves to show you.
But of course, I do not. It is the first sleeve, back to where it was last week. It made the trip all the way up to the armhole and slid right back, like an unlucky Snakes-and-Ladders player. Reason? The increase gradient was too gentle, and the sleeve threatened to be a bit too tight. In keeping with my new virtuous, gauge-and-fit-cautious 2008 self, I figured it was too early to slide back to my bad habits myself, and frogged.
It was a bad omen, no doubt. But in rash optimism and disregard, I cast the sleeve aside, and bought three skeins of a gorgeous forest green in Cascade 220 to make another Back to School Vest. Remember the one I made last month? I gave it away to a friend, and decided to make a better fitting one for myself. I cast on with size 7s like before and was an inch or so into it when a thought rose, unbidden, that the fabric was too loose, and that I might try with size 6 needles instead. A Counter-Thought naturally presented itself: did the first vest feel that way too? The thought, now stronger, insisted that it did, especially around the waist. Counter-thought, weakened by its adversary’s confidence, wilted and began doubting its own doubts about this apparent looseness. So I cast on again, with a different skein, with size 6s.
Thought and Counter-thought were clearly fucking with my mind and enjoying it, because now, an inch into both versions, I am thoroughly confused – too loose? Too tight? Not sure which one to do, I am altogether sick of this pattern already. But I can’t tell you how lovely this shade is – it reminds me alternately of moss and henna, which I feel I can almost smell or touch when I sniff or knit with the yarn.
No doubt my mind is mimicking the whole moss sensation, because yet another thought keeps forming threateningly in a deep recess somewhere, flinging more doubts and alternatives at me. Will this really look good as the BTS Vest? Wouldn’t the forest green rather be a comfy hoodie instead? Walk in the woods after rain; jeans, sneakers and green hoodie, maybe a cardi with pockets? Or, perhaps another Fitted Knits project – the feminine cardigan, in a dark green to minimize the overly cutesy look? It was this foolish thought that led me to rashly buy three skeins of another shade yesterday in charcoal grey for the Vest. Now my indecision is even worse – grey or green? Both are quite lovely, you gotta admit, but I’m too afraid to even wind the grey for fear that it will develop an identity crisis of its own.
Enough of Cascade, I told myself. Find a mindless, easy project to keep you occupied. I idly picked up a skein of Nashua Worsted and cast on for the Koolhaas hat for some instant gratification. No sooner had I done that than the alpaca strands got up my nose and created a fuss about too much fuzz, too little stitch definition, and there I was a day later, with the same project, but this time in Malabrigo Teal. I did two rows of the cabled pattern and another nasty thought, no doubt from the same subversive brigade, began to play in my head – do I really want this hat? I haven’t quelled the thought yet, and the two yarns are poised, waiting:
Socks! Always the last refuge, reliable, simple socks. My friend Madhavi got me two skeins of Regia from Germany this Christmas, and I brought them out this morning to pick one to cast on with. Just the thought of picking one over the other made me so superstitious, though, that they got photographed and went right back into the drawer. I’ll deal with them later.
This madness, it is hoped, will not last. I will sensibly match yarn to project, even progress a couple of inches, and not let the damn A.D.D turn me a complete, indecisive A.S.S. I just wish I could figure out which yarn to tackle first….
