Monday, January 15, 2007

Main St. Monday

Aww shucks. You guys are so sweet. First and foremost thank you for all the kind comments last week about the situations with my mom and the new job. When things get that tough, just hearing a little 'hang in there' once in awhile really means a lot! And thanks also for your patience-I know I haven't been able to comment on a lot of blogs out there lately because things have been so crazy. I worry I'm so behind on Bloglines I'm going to log on one day and there will just be a picture of the Bloglines Plumber guy giving me the finger.

But not yet! So I'm starting to catch up and will hopefully get to read and leave comments for you guys soon too.

Having gotten through last week things are going much better. My mom is doing well, we had her follow up visit with the surgeon today and he gave her the green light to shower and sit up for half hour intervals so she's really psyched about that. Laying flat on your back all the time-not fun at all! And the best part, she is now 10 days into quitting smoking! Now I am the furthest thing from a non-smoking activist or anything like that but for my mom this is a HUGE accomplishment! She's smoked for 46 years and just the fact that she has decided to try to quit is something entirely new for her. So she is now up and walking (and sitting) and making lots of funny and hopeful plans about what she's going to do with all that money she used to spend on cigarettes.

And I have to say as far as the new job goes so far (knock on wood) it's going great. The people are very friendly and patient with a lot of my newbie questions. The office is clean and comfortable (not a luxury I had at the circus tent that tried to pass for an office where I worked previously) and the work seems steady and along the lines of what I want to be doing. So hopefully it keeps up and things are starting to get back to normal.

And I had off work today for the holiday so I thought I was going to finish the Main St. Pullover.





It looks like it could be finished doesn't it? Well, I guess actually I thought I had finished it last night. But as I cast off the stitches at the neck I couldn't help but think that the neck was honestly looking more like a waist. And when I tried it on it was even more true. It was way to open and big and actually pretty floppy and wobbly. Ick. It took me a minute to figure out what I wanted to do but once I did it worked, I pulled out the cast off, picked up the stitches, went down from the size 8 needles to a size 4 (yep a four!), knit another inch on the 4's, did a little decrease row and bound off. Voila! So much better.

But then there was the issue of the bottom. I had decided to lengthen this pattern and for the life of me now I have no idea why. It was like way to long, like long past my butt and totally unflattering. What to do? Once again-rip it out. I chopped off that ribbing, wound yarn from the bottom onto the ball winder until I got to where I wanted, and picked up the stitches again. So tonight I get to start re-knitting the ribbing.

And that's ok. I'd rather go through all this stuff to have the sweater that I really think I'm going to love in the end. So I decided I need to stop this bad habit I have-I get really excited when I think I'm almost finished with stuff. I start to fantasize (I know it's a strong word, but let's face it, it's appropriate) about what I want to knit next. I go over my social calendar and start to think about opportunites to wear the new garment out where someone might notice it and ask where I bought it. (See pure fantasy!) So I need to not do that all the time. Knitting the garment the first time is kind of like a rough draft. It's rare I don't go back and rip out the next or fix the buttonholes, tweaking it here and there. And that stuff takes time. And it needs to be done right.

Oh yeah, you know what else is going to take some time?



A lot of times I weave in ends as I go. This time I've decided to wait until after I block this. The yarn is really stretchy and I don't want to weave them in tightly and end up with a pucker or something like that where I weave them in. So there you have it, you see London, you see France, and now you see the inside of my sweater with all the crazy, hanging-out ends!

5 comments:

Tracy said...

I can't believe how close to done you are! I also can't fathom having to weave in all those ends. There are many a project out that that would be great if not for all the color changes. You are a brave brave woman.

lobstah said...

Hey! I've never seen the Bloglines plumber before! Is that for real??

The sweater is looking great!

sunneshine said...

I've never seen the plummer, either...

The sweater looks great! I am with you on the slowing down at the end of projects-that is a skill I need to work on as well. That little extra time is always worth it - its just usually, I try to force it before I go back and do it correctly. You'll have to model the sweater for us when its done - it is really beautiful!

Jodi said...

Beautiful!!! You're very brave to do so much ripping and re-knitting right away.

Good luck with the job, and good luck to your mom, too.

Kari said...

Love the sweater! The fair isle on the top of the sweater looks wonderful. :-)