WIP Wednesday: Frustration

I did finally find the end of the yarn I talked about yesterday. How you ask? Well I put the whole thing on my arms as if I was going to have someone wind it and I shook until an end fell out. Unfortunately the yarn was quite tangled and I had to wind it by hand while running the ball under and around strands of yarn. It took about an hour and then I whipped it up on my skein winder and thought I was home free.

Poor quality phone photo taken in bed while trying decide if I should rip back or send this thing flying across the room.

Before I tell you how the pattern is going I was to say a couple of things. I bought the kit at the New England Fiber Festival in Nov 2011. It was one of those impulsive look shiny purchases. I had looked at the Holiday Yarns sock kits a few times before I pulled the trigger and made the purchase. When I pulled the kit out this week my first stop was ravelry to see if there was any errata or helpful suggestions. That is when I realized something could be amiss. Knitters warned that there were problems with early kits. I checked mine to find that all was ok. People warned that the pattern wasn’t for beginners. I am a very experienced sock knitter so I had no fears there. I took the kit to Knit Night and knew that it wasn’t the ideal project for a chatty environment but figured I muddle through for a couple of hours. Even if I only cast on and did the ribbing I’d be happy. When I got home from Knit Night I surveyed my progress: I had cast on, done a couple of rows, ripped out, cast on again and done 3 rows. Of course I did what all knitters would do, I assumed it was me trying to knit something too complex at Knit Night. Last night I sat down again in a quieter situation and completed the cuff. It looks so pretty with the ribbing and buttonholes but damn it I have one too many stitches. I took a deep breath and decided to just carry on with one extra stitch. It was in the button band and wouldn’t hurt anything in the pattern. I knit exactly 67 stitches and discovered I had lost track of the pattern and had to tink back and start the row again. Deep breath. Continuing on I made it through row number one and sat back to admire my row. It was fine. The whole thing looked good and I started row two. Not even half way across I am tripped up by a twist 2 right and a twist 2 left. I searched online for a good explanation of these. I normally cable with a cable needle so this is foreign knitting territory. I found something vaguely understandable with drawings and gave them a try. They looked lousy. I tinked back and put the whole thing away to try again when I have fresh eyes and a better mental state. Anyone have a good explanation of twist 2 right and twist 2 left? I need my sanity saved.

The shade of green is wrong. It is lighter with no blue to it at all.

I wouldn’t mind but this isn’t my first visit with frustration since I finished the last socks (more about them on Friday). Before digging out the Steampunkery Sock kit. I decided to give Cookie A’s Summer Sox a good. I printed out the pattern and hunted up some lovely Project B Dinah sock yarn in a beautiful shade of green. I quickly completed the ribbing and about 8 rows of the pattern and it looked uneven and wrong. I don’t know if it was me or what. I pulled out the 8 rows of pattern and left the ribbing on the needles. I will revisit this pattern and yarn again.

If you’d like to read more WIP Wednesday posts be sure to visit Tami’s Amis blog. Hopefully there will be more pleasant news on the knitting front over there.