Quick Fix

In an effort to combat a bad, bad few days of knitting mojo I knit like a fiend yesterday. (This would be the "start knitting like crazy and beat the mojo into submission" method) But, before I show you the outcome of my stronghanded method of beating bad mojo, my dad sent me a very cute comment on why he believes there is bad knitting mojo.

"It really has nothing to do with you - or your needles - it has to do with the yarn. You see, it is made from wool that came from sheep, and sometimes some of the sheep did not get along with each other and the yarn remembers. So when you knit and have a put two pieces of yarn next to each other that come from sheep that did not get along - well, you know what will happen - they will push the needles away and try to get away from each other.

So, you see that it really does not have anything to do with you. You should buy yarn from nice sheep and the knitting will go better. Now, knitting with acrylics and other man made yarn is another story, we deal with large molecules, and that is much much too long to explain here....."

How hilarious is he....(glad to hear it isn't me that is causing the bad project outcomes...)

Anyway, to lift my spirits I wanted a quick fix of a project. Something that would get me back on track. Enter Center Square. I have quite a few half skeins of Patons Classic laying around from the Not So Very Tall Socks debacle. I grabbed two colors and started knitting. An hour and a half later I ended up with this.

Very cute - soft, covers my ears and isn't "fitted". I like my hats a little roomy.

Tucker, on the other hand, doesn't really like hats. (he looks a bit Reggae in this photo, huh?) But he is pretty darn cute. This is a much more accurate representation of the colors - they are pretty bright!

After the successful completion of the hat, I moved back to the socks. I had frogged them earlier in the day.

I started threading a needle through the row I'd like to be "first" when I frog. I tend to get a little overzealous when I rip (it can be so fun!) and would rip more than I needed, or the stitches would ladder down when I try to get them back on the needles. This prevents both. I rip exactly to the row I need and no more. Plus, the stitches are already back on the needles! (learned from this Knitty article a while back)

A few more episodes of Veronica Mars and I had the foot complete with no mistakes!

It just needs a toe and Mamluke #1 is complete. I really have to say, this fair isle thing is fast. I still have no idea why as all the elements should indeed make for a much slower knit. After I completed the foot, I tried the sock on again using Bowerbirdknits photo as a model of where the heel should be.

Amazing! It looks really, really strange, but it feels pretty darn comfortable! Logic tells me it shouldn't fit this way, but it does. I'm not in love with how it stretches out the motif above the heel, but I guess that is where floating the yarn correctly comes in - and I'm proud to say that there is no binding at all (though it does wrinkle up a little in the area where my foot and leg meet in the front). I did have to add a couple of repeats of the pattern to make the foot long enough. On to the toe! I should have finished Mamluke pics tomorrow!