Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Mystery Knits and Procrastination Buttons...


We have a little joke in our wee knitting group about each of our personal knitting quirks. I won't publish my sweet friends' names here because they might get feisty and take my yarn away.  So i'll call them by the colour in which I see them. If this makes no sense, google "synesthesia". Then laugh a while, and come back to read the rest.

I'm going to start with Indigo. She's an addicted test knitter. The girl is always on a deadline, and I seriously think we need to start a support group and give her tokens for every week she doesn't take on a new test knit. She also has, by far, the most coveted yarn stash. 
.
Next is Olive, who cranks out some really pretty, intricate patterns and awesome finished projects...but I think you'd have to hold her at gun point to get her to weave her ends in. She'd rather just wear the hat with the tail hanging out, or tucked up inside. We take turns doing her dirty work for her.
Then we have
Miss Plum, who knits insanely fast. And when she's done? Oh, she gives the piece away to someone that we've decided is an undeserving person and starts another. And we're all left with our mouths gaping open saying "what?? you gave that away??"

And last there's Honey. Honey is happy as a clam knitting and ripping the same project over, and over, and over. Or losing it and finding it. Over, and over, and over.

 I recently, jokingly asked her if she had actually *finished* any of the projects that I've seen her working on over the last 2 years. Some of the ones I mentioned sounded like a total mystery to her. Then she ran all over her house looking for finished projects. She came back with a wad of frogged yarn  and a mitten. A, as in singular. And it was a very DETAILED, fair aisle mitten. And the other? She never bothered to start it. 

There is another friend in our little circle who I haven't  known long enough to figure out her quirk (or her colour) but I'm on to her. 

...or there's a slight chance that she'll read this and run-crossing my fingers that she doesn't.
 
and well, I have a knitting quirk of my own. A couple actually...
If you were to ask my friends they would probably say something along the lines of "she knits wrong". This is a sort of a joke that came from what a woman in a yarn store told me once when she saw me knitting continental.
 I can't do english/standard knitting like my friends-my head just doesn't work that way. And apparently the woman in the yarn shop thinks that continental is wrong. Whatever, I'll live. My projects come out looking the right way, so I don't care if it's "wrong". 

But there's something else. Buttons. I hate them. I love how they look...but I will let a project sit in a basket, finished, for a year, before finally adding the buttons. It's usually sort of a set series of events that leads to this inexcusable act. 

First, it's "I must find the right, most beautiful buttons".
Then it's "I need to find my scrap yarn so that the yarn actually matches the garment".
Then, "Oh shoot, this needle doesn't go through this button, but this yarn is to fat for a regular needle. I must pull it through with wire".
But "I don't feel like getting wire out at 1 am. I'll do it tomorrow".
Tomorrow comes and I remember I need to hide my finished project from the house hippo before she potties on it, or decides it needs to go swimming in the toilet, or it would make a nice blanket for her doll. and once it's reached blankey point, let's face it, i'd never get it back.

So it gets shoved in a knitting bag or basket with it's buttons and scrap yarn and put away until a later date. Like....months later.

I finished this "in threes" in AUGUST. In my defense, I didn't actually find the perfect buttons for it until November. (yes, I realize that was two months away, shuushh.)
And it took a pottery store opening right across the street from my house for me to actually go and buy ceramic buttons. And then another month and a half to actually attach them to my garment. I think I've found my phobia. (which is weird, because I don't do this when sewing.)



Oh yeah, and there are these. I couldn't decide which clue to do for the "follow your arrow" mystery knit along, so week one I made both. Now I can't decide which of the second clues to use for each. I'm still mulling over it. I might give it a week and see what the third clues look like and then decide.

binding off, 

Corra


11 comments:

  1. Your arrow shawls are both lovely and maybe you'll be casting on a third one?! I buy just any buttons that will do because I'm impatient and can't wait for the perfect ones. I wonder what color I would be....

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  2. I've not thought about knitting in this way; well, hmmmm. I would be the non-perfectionist knitter who would rather 'fix'something later (if a towel, wash cloth, simple scarf or blanket) with a long woven in tail than try to have a perfect FO ... besides, I think as I am new at this, I would have less finished... :)

    maybe if you had a stash of cool buttons it could go a bit faster?

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    1. I think i'm going to make an attempt at that! My son has been carving some for me from wood, so hopefully soon i'll have a few more options :)

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  3. Those buttons totally make the sweater. Definitely worth waiting for. I love how you describe your knitting friends. I can totally relate to Olive. I hate weaving in my ends!

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  4. Loved your blog post. Your friends sound wonderful. I'm curious to know what colour you see yourself as?

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    1. Haha well that's hard to explain. It changes throughout the year and over time with life events and moods...and i'm never one but several.

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  5. Lovely projects. I like both the simplicity of the "threes" and the spark of the colors for your MKAL

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  6. Your knitting is beautiful, Corra! Can you give a link to the cute sweater at the top of the page? Thanks! (Oh, not all Midwesterners say "worsh"...) :)

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    1. I'm sure the don't ;) My family is plagued with worsh, i have a love/hate relationship with the word.
      Here are my project notes for the sweater which include a link to the pattern.
      http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Corrabelle/in-threes-a-baby-cardigan

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  7. love the arrow choices you've made so far…..i'm just a single arrow knitter (single shawl/single color---gosh, I'm boring….in your color scheme of friends, i'd probably be grey; surprisingly enough, though, i'm not knitting with grey for this one!!!)
    (I so relate to that button-thing------mine is often blocking; I've got a sweater that is bunched up in the laundry waiting for me to stop being so lazy and get out the blocking blocks.)

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  8. I am a continental knitter. Since I am self-taught this was the easiest for me. Also, I am ambidexterous but write left-handed. I knit and crochet right-handed so I think holding the yarn in my left is more comfortable. It is different but certainly not wrong. Your projects look great.

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