Changing Gears

I was working on my Clair de Lune cardigan and thinking about whether or not I would actually wear it (probably should have thought that through before I started), when I noticed that I had somehow gotten off of the pattern.  I decided to take it as a sign and frogged it.  It's a beautiful cardigan but I'm not sure how much I would actually wear it in my real life.

Naturally, I cast on a new sweater almost immediately.  This is the Relax pullover which is similar to the Boxy, but slightly less boxy.  I'm knitting it in Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Dragonfly which is just an amazing colorway and I might currently have it stashed in three different bases.  This is my second sweater this year in a multicolored, varigated colorway and I really have no explanation for my actions.  Right now it's curling like crazy, so you only get a peek at what it looks like, but if you imagine a long, narrow rectangle, you've got a pretty good idea of what's going on.  This sweater is knit in pieces and I can't tell you the last time I knit a sweater that had to be seamed.  I didn't mind doing it years ago, so I'm not worried about it now.

A Solution

 

I realized earlier this week that I wasn't really happy with my Raindrops pullover.  If it had been knit in other yarn, I might have been able to finish it and see how it looked, but using four discontinued colors (which also are some of my favorites), I just didn't want to keep on knitting.

Yesterday I frogged it.  I will use the yarns for weaving I think.  I do like them together and I think they would make a nice wrap.

So, I'm 0-2 for sweaters this year.  The first one had color bleeding (I still haven't messed with that) and the second one was just frogged.  I have no idea what's going on with my sweater mojo, but I've got to shake it off!

Have a great weekend!  I have no idea what I'll do this weekend!

Sometimes Knitting Goes Backwards

Last night I did the impossible - I frogged mohair.  I had decided that my Horai needed a trip to the frog pond for a couple of reasons.  I wasn't happy working it on my slick metal needles, but it matched the colors too closely on the wooden needles for me to use those.  (Double stranded lace weight mohair and working the daisy stitch require you to be able to see what you're doing.)  Also, I'd made some mistakes back at the first of it that I couldn't see at the time (so I went on after correcting as well as I could), but I can definitely see the problems as I got farther away.  Finally, my cast on was too loose.  All of these things were combining to make this project one I wasn't working on because I knew inside that I'd never be able to wear it.  I decided it was worth trying to frog even though I've always heard you can't frog mohair.  I found out last night that if you go slowly and carefully (and you've knit the project to be frogged on enormous needles), and your kitten has worn himself out "helping" with laundry all day, it is in fact possible to frog mohair.  I did have to toss the last few yards - the parts from the original cast on, but otherwise, I got all the yarn back.

I do love this pattern and I love the yarn, so it's entirely possible that I'll get some new needles (wood, in a lighter color) and restart.  Now that I have a feel for the pattern, it should be easier to work a second time around.  In the meantime, I know frogging it was the right thing to do.

OK, so apparently frogging mohair isn't impossible, but getting a photo to upload today is impossible.  For some reason iPhoto isn't playing well with Flickr so it looks like I get to figure that out today.  Just imagine yarn today...

Sometimes you just need a ReDo

About four years ago I knit October Frost.  It's a lovely, cabled cardigan.  In the four years it's been sitting in my closet, I've worn it twice.  I'll pull it out to wear, but then it gets folded up again and put back away.  It's too big and too boxy and it's just not flattering on me.  I love the cables and I love the yarn, but the style of it just doesn't work for me.  Maybe it's the saddle shoulders, maybe I should have redesigned it smaller (I made the smallest size the pattern is written for), but I'm swimming in it.

Anyway, I knew what I needed to do and over the weekend, I did it - I frogged it!

Max and Logan had never seen a sweater being deconstructed and they found it fascinating.  Max even helped by laying on the pieces while I unravelled it.  Logan inspected the yarn balls as I wound them.  The yarn is Peace Fleece Worsted Samantha Katya Pink and I love the color.  Peace Fleece has that slightly scratchy, wooly feeling to it that just feels like it will last forever in the right pattern.  The kind of sweater you can throw on for years and it never pills, wears like iron and just keeps on going.  I think I already know what I want to make out of the yarn, but I really (really, really) should finish my Austin Hoodie first.  Remember that?  Yeah, I think I started it last April or May so I really should get that finished before it's one year old.  Maybe I should hide the Peace Fleece from myself until I finish Austin Hoodie.