Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Not doing so well...

I need to have some encouraging projects done... I am tired of making mistakes and disasters. First the Paris Loop, now the baby hat from the Land of Giant Babies....


I am going to a baby shower in a week, and I wanted to give another cute little baby hat, because the first one was so well-received - plus, it was a really easy knit!!! I didn't have enough of that yarn to make another one (they aren't telling if they're having a boy or a girl, so I figured another beige hat would be in order). So I picked up one of the numerous balls of the Lion Brand Microspun that I picked up a little while ago.... and I cast on more stitches than I had with the first hat, because the Microspun is a DK weight and the Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds yarn that I used for the first hat is a bulky. It made sense to me at the time.


The Microspun was easier to knit now that I wasn't doing a lace pattern with it. Maybe the larger needle helped, too. But... this is no baby hat. It fits me. Plus, it's all loose and floppy, so the little points don't stick up the way they should.




I should look on each of these times as a learning experience. I learned how to do the Kitchener's stitch on this hat. Look - see how wonky the stitches to the right are? And then when I figured it out, see how pretty the stitches to the left are? so nice....





And I'm moving on. I started the Booga Bag I'm doing as a KAL with my really cool friend. Luckily, she was online last night when I needed help... a quick email to her helped me realize I needed to bite the bullet and frog it - already! I was knitting away, when I started thinking it was knitting up really tight for a felted bag.... I thought I was knitting on a 10.5 circ needle like the pattern called for, but no... I was using a size 10. And I knit tight anyway. So she held my hand through the decision to frog the body of the bag. It's a tough one for me (see #3 on my list here). But I did it. All the way down to the bottom of the bag. Then I realized that the size 11 circ needle I was going to start back up with (yes, I'm going larger!) is too long - it's a 29" circ, and there's no way the bag will space out over 29 inches. So I get to go and buy a new circ needle today. The bag is currently resting on some size 7 dpns. Here it is before I frogged it.



I didn't get too far, thankfully. I love this colorway! The purple color going from the green to the dark purple is... forgive me for waxing poetic... is like a cool mist. So beautiful!


On a good note - I did finish the body of my needles case. I wanted to wait until the Booga Bag was done to felt them both together, but I don't know if I can wait that long. Now onto my first cables!

3 comments:

DustBunniesCanWait said...

You gotta be careful about gage. If I were to do that hat, I would double up the mirospun yarn - it should approximate Bulky weight that way :D

BTW love the colors of you booga bag!

Kellie said...

I was going to suggest doubling up too! Gauge issues suck :( Your booga bag yarn is beautiful!!!!!!!! It will work out well on the new needles and we will be felting before you know it :) I have the same knitting issues, as far as perfection but in a rush to finish too. There are many far less than pattern followed socks in my house because I was too lazy to frog.

NH Knitting Mama said...

There are a couple people in my group that are making the booga bag, and its a fantastic pattern! Can't wait to see pics of the progress, you picked great colors.