Sunday, January 06, 2008

Bad Knitting Juju

Everything I've touched since the completion of my Noro Shawl has been a disaster. When I got back to work on The Green Cabled Monster I knitted furiously. I got enough of it off the needles to try it on my very lucky husband only to find that the two sides didn't meet across his belly by a full 8 inches. Now I could take the easy way out and blame him for growing but the fact is that, for perhaps the first time in my knitting life, my gauge was absolutely 100% perfect. I can honestly blame the pattern but that doesn't change the fact that some 70+ rows of beautiful cables had to be tearfully pulled out. Not sure when I'll have the guts to cast on The Monster again.

Thinking a smaller project would cheer me up, I started on an Andean style earflap hat for The Dark Lord who, miracle of miracles, actually requested that I knit him something. All was going well until I spotted a mistake in the colorwork. No problem , I needed to to rip back one row but when I pulled it off the needles and held up the beginnings of the hat (earflaps plus a few inches around) it was so large that it looked like a giant's panties. Oy. I started over with fewer stitches, worked merrily along and almost finished. Due to my total incompetence with stranded colorwork it's now way too tight!

I'm beginning to feel cursed, like I used up all my good knitting juju on my lovely shawl and everything else is doomed. I decided I needed a Knitting Year in Review to remind myself what I'm capable of. Just waiting to get my groove back.......

3 comments:

Tammy said...

I'm sorry your juju is gone. I'll give you mine because my hands hurt and I am taking a break from knitting for a day or two.

ElizO said...

Wow, I really love the socks, too! For some reason socks always look to me like they'd be really tricky. Good luck getting back in the groove.

Anonymous said...

I think there's a curse with 'husband/partner sweaters' as I had a similar experience while knitting one for my sweetie. He kept saying "that looks awfully close to your size" and though my gauge was perfect and I chose the right size for his measurements, that sweater now sits comfortably on my shelf. When I'm not wearing it, that is!!

After gazing at your yarn choices I'm once again rethinking my somewhat monochromatic life. You have an amazing eye for color and I've no doubt you'll get your groove back with the needles!

Catherine