do over

Hi, Ted,

I know.  I know.  First I said I'd start back on Princess January 1st, then I had a tantrum and said I was going to give up.  I don't know what it is about this pattern, but my brain freezes every time I look at it.

My original goal, way back at the beginning of 2006, was to knit Princess in a little over a year -- in time to have it to wear in Venice, where I was hoping to spend our tenth wedding anniversary.  2006, though, turned out to my my own annus horribilis. To paraphrase the Queen, 2006 "is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure".  Right down to the last two weeks, when I was felled by the dreaded lurgy.

Needless to say, given all that's happened in the last year, we are not going to Venice in March.

However, now that I'm liberated of the goal of knitting Princess before March, there should be no reason I just couldn't take my time and do a row here and there, right?  And it'll be done before I know it, right?

Right.

There is, however, still that little matter of the needle.  You know, the one I had a tantrum over last spring?  The one in which I tried many brands of needles.  In which we attached shrink wrap tape to a needle.  All to no avail, because the damned stitches still get caught on the join, and I have to lift them one by one by one by one by one (ad infinitum) over it.  It is a slow, laborious, and frustrating process, and if there's one thing I hate, it's when knitting doesn't flow smoothly.

I have a couple more solutions in mind.  First, though, I have to figure out how in the world one sets up the first row of the chart, because my fevered end of bad year brain refuses to see how the math works.

I've given myself a month to get over it or move on. 

Of course, you do realize that this probably means another tantrum towards the end of January, don't you?

I promise to try very hard not to send it to you in an email...

k

Comments

[Cambria W]

try to breath, and then if that doesn't work I say throw it across the room. It works for me!

[Valerie]

Just a note of encouragement and a Happy New Year to you....
in my experience, some projects just need to gestate on the needles awhile. Tantrums are par for the course of the one housing the gestatee.
Best wishes for a better 2007!

[carrie]

Oh, it is so pretty! Don't give up! Although I gotta admit, the needle join problem would have me insane... have you visited a shop owner for their recommendations?

[k]

Many thanks for the good thoughts -- I don't want to give up on it, but I really do seem to have developed a block. Looking at that photo of Ted's Princess from last spring really does inspire me to keep plugging, though!

[Jane]

Don't give up! I think you might just have needed a little break from knitting "Bitch Slap" lace. I'm hoping to kick-start my own knitting with smaller lace projects that will be easy to finish to prime myself to start back on my WRS from last year. As for needles, Feh I say. And again Feh. I just try to knit a little looser :-) Good Luck!

[karen]

It's calling your name again isn't it! It's amazing how loud my projects can be sometimes.

[fleegle]

I too have had needle trouble. What I did was take my Boye NeedleMaster tips (#3 and up) to a gunsmith and had them milled to fit KnitPicks cables. Then I gave him the smaller-sized KnitPicks (0-2) and had him beadblast the finish so it was not so slick. The surface is perfectly smooth, but more like anodyzed aluminum. You can decide how much of the tip you want blasted, too.
The KnitPicks joins are so smooth that they cannot catch yarn that is even 18,000 yards/pound. Seek my blog if you want to use my gunsmith.

fleeglesblog@blogspot.com

Gorgeous knitting, by the way!