When Knitting Attacks

 

This has not been a good week knit wise. First Musselburgh turned out to be a disappointment then this. I am an obsessive matchy matchy knitter when it comes to socks and my latest pair of Arne and Carlo's Regia were a big flop. The one on the right has some kind of dye issue with it making big blotches where there should be a neat little blue stripes. No matching with that. Even The Mister said ewww when I showed it to him. It was a good thing I was knitting them both at the same time. If I had gotten that first sock done and then discovered the issue....it would have been so much worse. 

No big deal you might say since I was only an inch or so in but that inch or so took a lot of work to achieve. Let me explain using my next attempt with some different yarn. 

To get that matchy matchy thing to happen with one 100 gram ball first you have to split it in half. Wind, wind, wind...it's mind numbingly boring. 

Then you have to wind it all up so it's all heading in the same direction and then two more windings to get them both into cakes so they won't roll away. Also boring. 

Then you have to make more balls as you search for a color pattern you can recognize and match up which is not always easy. By now your morning is shot and you've accomplished very little. 

After all that you still have to get it on both needles so you are starting from the same spot. I anxiously knit both cuffs in tandem while watching to make sure the color changes are happening at around the same time. No sock is perfect but it's good to be close. Hopefully this loosey goosey design from Arne and Carlos will be more user friendly than that last one. I'm not in the mood for anymore surprises. 

And.....if all that wasn't bad enough, my just off the needles Felici are not going in the gift box after all. After blocking I noticed that they have a pretty bad case of the ladders going up each side. That's what I get for using the Magic Loop when I am under stress. I either pull too right and make ridges or transition too loose and get ladders. I could say it is a design element but we know better. They'll go in my sock drawer and after a winter of washings they'll probably look just fine. That's three big fails this week and bad things usually come in threes. Hopefully the knitting gremlins are done with me for a while. I sure hope so.