The UFOs... Wow... Taking a look at the list to the right, my UFOs total 17 at this point in time. Seven. Teen. That's just not right. The oldest is at least 18 months old and is a bag that just needs to be lined. The next oldest is about 9 months old, so that's not so bad, right? And, again, it's a bag that needs to be assembled and lined. (Sensing a trend?) My goal is to knock that list down by at least 10 items during the knit-a-thon.
As I happen to find myself between projects in these last few days before the official start, I've gotten a jump on things and finished the knitting portion of a pillow cover. This particular project started it's life as a woefully complicated entrelac purse. The YSO who was teaching the class picked it as the project for a beginners class on entrelac. It involved 2 different stitch patterns for the entrelac pieces, increasing and decreasing in those 2 different patterns while working the entrelac to form a hobo-bag shape, and I picked a boucle (Patons Canadiana Boucle, 97% acrylic/3% Nylon in color 7078) as my contrast yarn so the stitch pattern in those levels were next to impossible to keep track of anyway. While teaching the class, the YSO kept getting up to help customers, and for some reason my class members kept asking me for help, so I had very little chance to make progress in the class as it was. By the time I got home, I had decided a few things:
1. The boucle was way too stretchy on its own.
2. The stitch patterns were making everything way to complicated.
3. The stitch patterns in the boucle were impossible to see.
4. Turning the project every 9 stitches was insanely annoying.
So, I decided to rip back and start over. Only the boucle was such a pain that I could only rip back so much before I finally just cut the yarn and threw away the bottom level and a half of the project. When I restarted, I ran a thread of black size 20 crochet cotton with the boucle to give it more stability. Also, I threw the stitch patterns out the window and just went with stockinet. And, now that I'd changed over to stockinet, I looked up a video on how to knit backwards so I wouldn't have to turn the project constantly. I finished one half of the bag and set it aside for months while I took on other projects that weren't the fiber equivalent of dealing with a bloated government beurocracy. When I finally picked it up again, I discovered the final, and ultimately project-killing, point:
5. I really, really didn't like it.
The increasing and decreasing were still an annoyance, but I could live with that with the other modifications I made. But the bag itself? It's shape and construction? I just didn't like it. And I didn't know anyone who would like it. When I looked at the photo that came with the pattern, it just said "60-year-old phD candidate with an unhealthy obsession with India." I couldn't think of a single person in my life who would enjoy the bag. So even though I was more than half done, I frogged it all back again.
This time, I decided to just go square. There was one row of the original pattern that didn't involve any increasing or decreasing, and from that row and the directions for the starting and ending rows of triangles, I was able to extrapolate how to get straight-sided entrelac to work. And, hey, it did! I managed to get a square done relatively quickly. However, due to all the cutting and frogging and throwing-out of unfrogable pieces, I was going to be tight on how much yarn I would have left. When I started this final reattempt, I was thinking I'd do a small tote bag. But in the end I decided to do a pillow cover. So, using the main color (The Leader, 100% acrylic, color 601) I knit a 2-piece stockinet backing. The smaller of the 2 pieces has a garter edge with button holes. When it's all sewed in place, I'll be able to open it up to remove the pillow form for washing. A plus, given the 2 toddlers who roam wild and free in our house.
In my new-project frenzy, I finished the front and the larger back piece and left the smaller back piece with 2 inches left to be knit. And there it sat. So, last night, I picked it up again and finished the knitting. I have about 3/4 of a yard left of the acrylic, so it's all going to have to be sewn together on the machine or by hand. But all the bits are done for now and I'm sure it will sit undisturbed for several more days until the UFO-busting knitathon is well underway and I have nothing else to do but weave in ends and assemble pieces.
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