Knit & Design Projects Update

I haven’t been posting much about knitting or designing. I realized the other day that I’ve been avoiding working on the swatch/project for my next design because I don’t enjoy knitting it. It’s essentially lace knitting without any yarn overs – it’s all increases and decreases. To make it more challenging, it’s almost all purl increases and decreases. I’m using sock yarn on US size 3 needles that are rounded; this would probably go better with a set of lace needles. I also don’t particularly like the yarn I’m working with. I like the color but almost nothing else about it, and even the color adds to the difficulty of knitting because it’s so dark.

I do (mostly) like the end result: it is very close to what I was shooting for. If I did enjoy knitting this, I’d redesign the pattern to make an even number of stockinette ridges so there isn’t one center line that draws your eye to … well … the center. And I’d make the center of each bulb 1×1 ribbing instead of stockinette stitch; I don’t like that the rest of the fabric is ribbing except for the centers, I want it all to have the same texture.

I was going to try switching to a larger needle, a US6 or 7, but I really don’t think that’s going to change how I feel about this project: I dread working on it. If I’m going to knit (or create anything), I should enjoy the process, not put off working on it and not have to force myself to complete x number of rows/repeats a day until the piece is done. This confirms, once again, that I’m a process knitter. The product is still important, but if I don’t enjoy the process, it’s not worth it and I’m not going to put myself through that.

So it’s back to the drawing board for a third time on this one, which really doesn’t bother me as much as you might think. I’d rather start over a bunch of times and get it right than hobble along to completion with something that’s off somehow. And there’s a lot off with me and this swatch. I’m pretty sure I can do something similar and closer to the effect I’m going for with cables and I like cabling much better than lace for some reason. Maybe because it looks complex but is relatively easy to pull off, while a long lace pattern like this looks complex & is complex to pull off (for me anyway – I lose track of where I am in the pattern too often & too easily).

This weekend is a holiday weekend in the US and my family is taking a quick road trip to New Jersey, land of the jug handle turn and not pumping your own gas (no really: there’s a law). I’ll have 4 hours of knitting time in the car each way and will take the new design with me if I can finish the chart today, but I don’t think I will, so I think instead that I’ll make a lot of progress on my Old Town cardigan.