Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Enjoying the What Is...

Sometimes there are days when things don't go the way we would like.  Yesterday was one of those days and I ended up spending my planned X day (which was meant to be a day to get some gifts finished) in bed with a very nasty stomach bug.  Thankfully I'm up and about today and things are looking a little brighter.  Well, except for a few gifts that aren't quite going the way I had pictured them.

I have this tendency to not follow patterns (yes, the same way I am with recipes); sometimes this tendency can lead to really fun and wonderful results, other times...not so much.  I saw this Baktus shawl/scarf on Handmade Homeschool's blog and was sure it would be just the right gift for my SIL.  It seemed simple enough until I decided to try to alter the pattern to look more like the one shown on the blog and I decided to use stockinette stitch (like the Karius scarf) instead of garter.  Mine seems determined to curl inwards so much that it looks more like an overgrown caterpillar than a lovely shawl/scarf.  Methinks I should have stuck with garter stitch.  I've had a few "helpful" suggestions from "the boys" that I should just finish it off and iron it. ;-)  Any one else have any quick fix ideas?  I'd love it if I didn't have to rip it all out.


Last year I started on this bag for my other SIL with the plan to make a Runabout purse.  I decided part way through that a cosmetic bag would be a better gift (thinking that it's better for women to choose their own purse) and tucked the partially knitted bag away.  Last week I got it back out to finish knitting so I could finish knitting it,  felt it, do some needle felting on and then line it as a cosmetic bag.  I just realized that in between those times I obviously borrowed the circ. needles I was using and tucked some other size in to hold the stitches in place.  It took me several inches of knitting to realize that my stitches were much smaller.  Now I can't decide if I should just rip the whole thing out and make a button hole bag instead.  (or perhaps just send a giant chocolate bar and forget knitting for this year?)

Thankfully a few things are turning out the way I had hoped.  I'm pleased with this needle-felted butterfly.  It will likely become a hair barrette, pony tail holder or decoration on a hairband - depending on what the recipient prefers.

And we had another gorgeous walk in the woods on the weekend.  I do so love living in the woods.  We followed rabbit tracks.

and squirrel tracks.

Then we found a log across the creek with more of their tracks on it - their own little bridge across the (hopefully not troubled) water.


And, we collected some more bits for our greenery decorations - rosehips, juniper (with beautiful blue berries), snowberries, oregon grape, kinnickinnic (with red berries), and some lovely sticks with pinecones still attached.

This one isn't quite done.  I still need to add all the colourful berry bits.

This one is waiting for just a few more bits too.

And we also stopped to watch the sun start setting.  I loved the way it looked shining through this, there were droplets of water too because the snow was melting in the sun but I couldn't catch those very well with my camera. Lovely.

8 comments:

Leigh said...

What a bummer. To get sick I mean, especially on your X-day. I have to say that you are certainly being productive anyway, you put me to shame! I have finally managed to start on some socks, but I'm woefully behind in getting my Christmas packages in order to mail.

I hope you're feeling better!

Anonymous said...

Great post!
Feel better soon!
Rebecca :)

Samantha said...

If the scarf is wool, you can try blocking it. I think you would need to use a lot of pins because it wants to curl in so much, but it's better then having to rip it all out and start again. Stockinette will curl though, that is the nature of it. But a good blocking might work. :-)

Heather said...

Thanks, Samantha. I was wondering about trying that but was thinking that it might just roll back inwards after being worn for awhile, especially out in the snow and rain. I haven't blocked anything before so don't really know if moisture sort of negates the blocking. Any idea?

Thanks for the get-well wishes Leigh and Rebecca. I'm feeling great again. :-)

Sandi said...

Hey Heather,

Just a thought. How about picking up the stitches and knitting a few rows of garter stitch. Of course you would need a large circular to do this. I read somewhere that scarf knitting requires garter stitch on the sides to prevent rolling.

Samantha said...

I'm not sure what will happen in the rain either. I wonder if the item becomes 'trained' to sit a certain way because I don't think you have to reblock a sweather after you wash it. Hmm... Here is a link to some blocking methods
http://knitting.about.com/od/learntoknit/a/blocking_knits.htm
I've never blocked anything either, so I'm not sure the best way - sounds like it depends on your yarn.
Sandi has a good idea as well. I've heard about that method for knitting stockinette scarves.

Samantha said...

I did a little more online looking :-)
Some other suggestions are crochet a border around it or sew some fabric to the back of it (which might not work with such thin ends now that I look at it.
It's so beautiful, i would try blocking first and if it still wants to roll a bit, you can try a border.

Heather said...

Thanks Sandi and Samantha. I love the idea of knitting or crocheting around the edge. I'm going to give that a try and hopefully that will be just the trick for fixing this. Thanks so much for your help.