Tuesday, December 05, 2006

I'm Stranded

btn_strandedkal_raspberry.0.jpgBelieve it or not, I’ve joined another KAL. But don’t worry, I’m not becoming a joiner. Like the other KALs I’ve joined, this KAL is one that happened to coincide with my knitting schedule. I’ve joined Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge. So here’s the first bit of KAL-age:

What are your projects for this knitalong?

Dale of Norway Lotus. I think that will be enough of a project for me. After all, I’ve frogged the entire thing once and frogged back several rounds a second time.

The second frogging incident was a result of my laziness. I had read all about yarn dominance and began my project with the yarns held in appropriate hands: the background pink in right hand and the dominant white in my left hand. All was right in the world. Then, I reached a transition point in the pattern—white becomes the background color and pink becomes dominant.

Of course, this transition doesn’t happen in one round. Oh no! That would be too easy. The transition happens over about five rounds and in those five rounds, part of the pattern repeat has white dominant and part of the pattern repeat has pink dominant. To keep the appropriate colors dominant, I would have to switch the yarns back and forth in my hands several times as I worked the rounds. Naturally, I found the switching annoying and didn’t do it. I simply picked a round in which to switch hands “once and for all” and knit on my merry way. Bad choice.

horrors!

You can plainly see where I switched hands. Looks bad, doesn’t it? Okay, I know you’re all thinking that I’m being crazy and seeing things again, but humor me. Tell me how awful it looks. Don’t worry, I’ve frogged the offending rows and reknit and all is right with the world again.

Is this your first colorwork project? If it isn't, what was your first, and has it survived the test of time?

My first colorwork was also my first knitting project ever—a Sweater Curse sweater. I have no idea if the sweater is still around. I’ve done other colorwork since then, but Lotus is my first project involving steeks.

Random Knit Blog-age:

The fate of the Swallow Tail Shawl has been decided. Rachel offered to send me replacement yarn in exchange for the shawl. I’m sure it’s no secret that I’m a process knitter. Why else would I knit a gazillon wool sweaters that are horribly impractical for life in it’s-too-hot-here-Houston? So, I jumped at Rachel’s offer. Weee! Now I get to knit with cashmere AGAIN! To show my gratitude to Rachel, I won’t link to a goofy photo of her (like I did here) or remind her about how she’s a failure at being an apathetic sock knitter.

Cat Blog-age:

Sammy!I never quite understood why so many of you accused me of having a stuffed cat (or a drugged cat) whenever I showed a photo of Scout mugging for the camera. That is, I didn’t understand until now. I went to my parents house for a visit at the end of last month. While I was there I tried to take a photo of my “other” cat, Sam. Sammy was my cat until my mother decided that she liked him and wouldn't let me take him to Texas when I moved here. Considering the fact that Mom has never liked any animal before Sam*, I allowed him to stay with Mom. While I was home, I tried to take a good photo of Sam. I particularly wanted show off his pretty blue eyes. He didn’t seem to understand what I wanted.

Pretty KittyYes, his eyes were open and he was looking at the camera each time I pressed the shutter button! After chasing him around with a camera for a couple days, he had enough. But anyway. See the bit of blue carpet next to Sam? That’s the color of his eyes. Although Sam and the house were obtained separately, they are a matched set. I tried to talk Mom into letting me take Sam this time. Dad was ready to pack him up and toss him on the plane with me, but Mom said, "Sam is used to being an only cat." I guess that's a no.

* Mom has to be in the running for the Best Mom Ever for her tolerance of all the pets that big brother and I had. Mom really doesn't like pets at all. When big brother and I were growing up, she wouldn't interact with our pets and flatly refused to touch them unless absolutely necessary (such as when they were bothering her). Officially, big brother and I had one dog, two cats, three rabbits, two hamsters, two chicks, and a bunch of fish. Then there were the countless number of animals that "followed us home." These "foundling" animals were usually dogs but we ocassionally found cats and I once found a feret. (The feret was immediately sent packing by Mom.)

10 comments:

janna said...

Yes, you see, Sam is a normal cat, unlike Scout, who is obviously the most laid-back cat ever.

Anonymous said...

Aha Sam is a redpoint just like Jester...well you could say his points are redder and he is an apple head but apart from that they could be brothers right down to his spotty nose (age spots).

Anonymous said...

Oh my god, my eyes! My eyes! What are you thinking putting such an awful piece of colorwork knitting up on the internet where anyone can see it -- without so much as a warning so we could prepare ourselves??? You must be so humiliated that you produced such an embarrassing example of knitting.

Just kidding. I can't see the row where you switched yarns. But I wanted you to feel that it was the right decision to frog, since you already did.

And thanks a whole freakin' lot for telling everyone that I'm taking your shawl. That's going to make it a lot harder for me to convince everyone that I knit it. Not that I'm not still going to try.

Jeanne said...

My mom was just here and accused us of having a drugged cat...he does do an awful lot of lounging!

Sarah said...

Awww, poor Sammy, not too photogenic.

He is a cutie though!

Anonymous said...

Oh, uh, yeah.
The colorwork looks awful.
Um.
Yes.
Of course. Of course it does. Clearly awful.
:-)

Jennifer said...

Hazel does that all of the time. I can never get a good shot of her pretty eyes either. I think it's the flash.

Meredith said...

Hmm, I don't notice the color dominance thingy. Well, sort of, since you pointed it out. I'm just hoping my colorwork project looks vaguely like it's supposed to and I'll be happy. ;)

Anonymous said...

I went back and found Scout in the photo of the Swallowtail Shawl -- so glad to see her!

Sam is adorable. I've never seen a cat in that color before. You must miss him a lot!!

I've never done the stranded knitting you're describing, but thank you for posting the link about dominance. That will be good to know before I try it someday. I'm with you -- when in doubt, ALWAYS rip. Otherwise you won't be able to look at much less wear the FO.

Anonymous said...

I e-mailed the KAL runner to see if those could still sign up, I'd love to join as I'm gogni to start a Dale Ringbloomst soon (well January 20).

And my goodness that cat is beautiful, I've never seen a cat so gorgeous in color! IT's like butter!