Life mimics art

Or is it vice versa?

My plan for March was to knit only accessories. Small, quick little knits that come in so handy when winter starts to draw in. In my mind, that meant brisk and regular blog posts showing you little finished item after finished item, and a nice sense of productivity - just the ticket for getting my head down in April for some more cardigan and lace knitting.

But there have been, as in life, some unexpected complications.

In May, I am involved in an exhibition of sorts at the old Kiama Fire Station. I don't have anything to sell, so I thought I'd make a few brightly solid coloured baby blankets.

I made one in February.



But it used way too much of the cotton/microfibre blend yarn, and was therefore quite expensive to complete.

So I tried a different plan - this time with a cheaper yarn and the very popular and free tiramisu blanket. I went with a bright watermelon with a chocolate satin ribbon. But the pattern proved so slow growing and boring that I abandoned it within days.

Went back to the sunny spread idea:



Problem. This cheap yarn is horrible. I just don't like crocheting with it.

On to plan C - a plain heirloom cotton shetland fir cone stitch blanket.



This is the go! I thought ... But I was almost immediately distracted by the lure of a crocheted dress.

DISTRACTION 1

I got carried away with that crocheted dress I posted about last month and I swatched a couple of spiral hexagons.



I hit a stumbling block with not knowing how to change colours in these hexagons and not really having any idea how to shape a dress in crochet.

So the question of colour led me to another distraction - the Kaffe Fasset sock yarn crochet blanket.

DISTRACTION 2

There is the skipping stones blanket from lion brand via ravelry that I like very much. So, I crocheted a few of the motifs in Kaffe Fasset's regia sock yarn.



But my motifs aren't circles, they're more like octagons. Not happy with that, I was distracted again with some beautiful yarn.

DISTRACTION 3

Beatiful yarn. ooohhh my god. Debbie Bliss Andes, from my little trip to Calico and Ivy. Like a siren's song - I was captivated by it ...

I wanted a cowl. A supersoft cowl so light you didn't even know you were wearing it. I began something I thought I could make up as I went along but soon realised that designing on the fly with such delicate yarn isn't such a great idea.



I frogged and re-knit part of one ball three times, and so afraid of ruining the soft single strand yarn I put it away until I'm sure I know what to do with it.

DISTRACTION 4

I'm in this knitalong thing. I'm not keeping up. I finished the first sock, but even if I did have enough yarn to finish a second (which I don't), I wasn't that keen on it. In keeping with the dragon theme, I thought I'd knit the pendragon socks.

I tried a new technique for me, knitting them both at the same time. And at first, they were coming along just fine ..



Until about a week ago, when I discovered a big mistake in the cable just where it splits for the heel flap. And because I can't knowingly live with a mistake in my knitting, it's going to have to come out back to that point.



I don't like knitting socks that much at the best of times, so I put it away for a time out period, while I got back to my cowl idea.

DISTRACTION 5

About that time, I got some new base yarns in the store, a superwash sport weight merino, and a superwash merino/silk single. So I had to dye some, didn't I?









DISTRACTION 6

So, back to the cowl idea. Wanting to try the new sport weight merino, I dyed some up in a lovely silvery grey and began designing a simple wide cowl. After a few false starts mathematically, it's proving to be an addictive and easy to remember little stitch pattern, with garter stitch edges, the plan is to have some big buttons and strategically placed buttonholes so it can be worn a few different ways.



And I really thought I could commit to this, right through to the end.

But .. something just wouldn't let go ..


DISTRACTION 7

Those pesky socks kept playing on my mind. I had to get them sorted out. So, last night, I pulled out the project bag and made some progress on the sock that doesn't have a mistake in it.


And I got past the gussets and partway down the foot. It was going great, but there's a stumbling block ahead..

That's all the yarn left in the ball. It's going to run out.



(I think I have one more ball of it though, fingers crossed.)

So, I've concluded in what feels like a productive month so far that has spectacularly failed to produce a single thing - for me, knitting monogamy is best.

So when I get these socks and this cowl finished - it's back to one thing at a time for me.

Oh, and give yourself a round of applause if you've lasted this long. Long silences = long posts I guess.