Good Morning Everyone!
Nothing like a ton of mental chatter to accomplish one's goal, along with some swearing and overwhelming aggravation. My Fleurine is not only finished, it's so pretty AND IT FITS! No matter how hard I try to ensure that the end result will turn out exactly as planned, I never escape those unforeseen hurdles that force me to think outside the box. It's rarely as simple as following a recipe, the pattern can easily take you down a very dark and twisted rabbit hole, "Hello my name is Alice." That said, I'm wired as such, that knitting can become mundane, too much of a good thing is, boring. I love doing colorwork and have created several stunning yoked sweaters this past year alone. I've introduced myself to mosaic knitting with the Schieffelin sweater, purchased more Jenn Steingass patterns than I care to admit, and knit an Avena. I'm working on a Sipila for Addie and have a Goldenfern and my stunning Foxthoughts sweaters in queue.
In an effort to not get completely uninspired with colorwork, I decided to throw a wrench into my perfect little world by doing Intarsia. Creating different muscle memory by introducing stupid little bobbins seemed like a brilliant idea to clear the cobwebs, it did the trick and drove me almost batshit crazy. The only saving grace was how badly I wanted that sweater, stubborness is a wonderful quality. The feeling I had when I finally got to row 107 of that chart was liberating, I DID IT MY WAY!!! Would I do Intarsia again? Sure, unlike Brioche, I can fudge my way through Intarsia and still end up with a lovely finished garment. If you want to know how the wrong side of an Intarsia garment is supposed to look, checkout Cocoknits latest pattern called Nine Patch, they even have a video. I will cut myself some slack, I think that creating a uniform, geometric design is much simpler that random color splotches up the front of a sweater. I already feel better, I just thought of that, my design was much more complicated, and yes it IS A CONTEST AND I WIN. My mission was accomplished, I completely appreciate the joy and ease of Fair Isle colorwork. Long floats are no problem and I can easily manage carrying along a couple CCs, there's a lesson in every project.
Like every smart knitter, I wasted no time casting on my next project, Valeria...she's exactly what I need, a bit mindless and CHUNKY!! Holy cow I had an entire skein finished in an evening, 1" takes no time at all on my #10's, there was no hyperventilating or angst, just straight forward knitting with a bunch of M1L, M1R and German short rows, easy peasy. This sweater will be done in a week if all goes according to plan, I haven't knit a sweater at this gauge since my Il Favorito Grande. Truth be told, the Remix Chunky I'm using now was earmarked for my 4th Il Favorito until I saw this cardigan. I didn't love it at first, but Addie did, she's my little fashionista and it serves me well to listen to her when I need to shake up my wardrobe. I'm still not sold on the resurgence of Mom Jeans (Addie swears by them), I didn't love them the first time around, I'm all about my Levi buttonflies, still wearing them after 35 years.
This Saturday, June 11th is not only Addie's Graduation, but WORLD WIDE KNIT IN PUBLIC DAY. The shop won't be open, and I won't be able to attend, but I really hope that several of you will still gather together and pretend I'm late. I think that Taylor Park would be an awesome spot by the fountain. I'll mention it tomorrow evening during our regular Stitch and Bitch from 6-7:30. I'll go ahead and post the details on Facebook and Instagram. If you're not already following me (What A Yarn), it's a great way to stay informed of things going on at the shop. Make it a great day and I'll see you soon!
Katy