After a few false starts …

So I started the thing about five times, and finally managed to do a job I could be happy with.

I’m still going to have to do a proper border along the straight edge to make me happy with that row. It was actually the first five stitches that make up the center back that were the biggest pain EVER. Since they’re so obvious, I’ll fix any weirdness by adding a shell border and it will be gorgeous!

I haven’t made any lace in a while, in fact not since I made snowflake ornaments before I started this blog in 2006, so I’m now remembering that lace looks all … squished and scrunched down until it’s been properly blocked. Hard to see the pattern yet. Which can be troublesome for actually making it!

It was a stroke of genius to make a shawl, in any case. I was realizing the other day that shawls and jackets seem to be appropriate for the weather here about 300 days a year.

Part 3 of 4: Trying Again or Stubbornness

*AHEM* Never make plans. Plans never work out. I planned to post twice last week, but unfortunately evil shapeshifting soldiers from an alternate universe appeared and … wait. That was Fringe.

I ended up watching TV because I was hijacked by illness and despair last week. A nasty combination of migraine and stomach flu convinced me by late Wednesday that I must surely be dying. This was not true. I was, however, sicker than I’ve been since I was a teenager, and the only thing that interested me about the computer was reruns of Simon & Simon on Hulu.

Crafting did not interest me. For three days I lay prone, trying to pretend I was hot or cold because I was in the Bahamas or Iceland. Finally yesterday I picked up my crochet hook (it seemed like a low energy task) and started working again on the red sweater I started a year ago. I WILL FINISH IT THIS TIME. I just tried it on again this evening and the sleeves now fit and the decreases I forgot last time are going well. All these sweater struggles had better make my next crochet sweater much easier.

It seems I am in a mood to pick up tasks which previously frustrated me, all of them having to do with making clothing. If I am nothing else, I am persistent in getting things done which I feel must be done. I may get frustrated, but I don’t give up until I’ve figured things out.

Before the minions of hell loosed their plague upon me, I was working on my wardrobe sewing skills. I’ve been using my mending pile to figure how fitting clothing works. You may remember I was slightly miffed when trying to alter a dress pattern to fit me (we won’t go into that rant again) and gave it up as a bad job for a while. I’ve managed to alter several shirts and two skirts to fit me now, figuring out where the darts and whatever are supposed to go for things to fit me.

This is my example of my fitting work, complete with bad camera work and piles of mending. On the left is a shirt with an acre of extra room, and on the right the end product. I was excited that it worked. The project wasn’t all that spectacular, except for the fact that all the fitting was new to me …  I have to start somewhere, right?

In summation, I am determined that (a) I will feel like a human again, not a dishrag and (b) that I will make myself clothing that fits. Surely these are not too much to ask for.

An Awareness of Time Passing

At the beginning of this month (aww crap it’s already next month, nevermind) January I wrote out a sort of plan for production of creative things for the year. And already, I’m behind. I thought of time passing, about how I now have just 11 months to feel accomplished about my year!

And then I said no. I am not going to beat myself up about this. I know this happens. It is not a real problem and I am not actually upset. I think, in fact, that I’ve soldiered quite bravely on in the face of some disappointing problems that require fortitude to correct. You see, sometimes when I encounter a problem, I solve it by just getting rid of the problem. You have to admit, it is a type of solution. However, when the problem in question is something you’ve spent hours or days working on, it’s not so easy to just get rid of it. Actually, I think it would feel physically painful to try to throw something away like a sweater I crocheted.

The red sweater is a good example of this. After my last post, I sewed up the sides.  As I suspected, the sweater does not fit – the arms are too small and it requires decreases in the yoke. I am going to have to rip out the entire yoke, detach the sleeves and start on this part again. I do not want to. It makes me want to throw a two-year-old’s tantrum. But I will finish. Later. When I’m not so irritated that just looking at the problem makes me feel a little, ok a lot stabby. It’s a long version of that “count to 10″ recommendation for people with tempers.

Then there is the case of Jeremy’s Mountain Hat.

First, I made a mountain crochet chart. The chart is awesome. Then I made a beanie crown. The crown was … meh. Then I started making the rest of the hat, and encountered HAT FAIL. (1) I didn’t like my color changes, and (2) somehow I lost 10 stitches around. That’s right. I went from 72 stitches around to 62. The yarn that I’m working with is bulky, and when you carry yarn, sometimes the stitch the color changes on ceases to look like a stitch, so I ended up accidentally skipping it in the next row. I thought I was losing my mind.

PLUS -(3) the crown color yarn is slightly less bulky than the other two yarns, and I’m using tapestry crochet (where you carry 2 strands of yarn) for the pattern part. Ergo – there’s a significant fabric difference between the Not-as-thick-single-strand-crochet of the crown and Thicker-two-strand-crochet of the pattern. It was not attractive.

So I frogged the whole thing.

I going to start over. And when I’m done, it will be a thing of joy and beauty.

Just you wait.