Taking it slow, sort of

After the knitting induced wrist disaster in late October, I've been taking it slowly on all my projects.

Well, that and I've been hecking busy lately. Saturday and Sunday were both packed with activities, although I bowed out of a fair bit of Saturday's due to fatigue. Monday we had round three of the battle of the century against lice. Georgia has caught them once a month since she started school, and I guess Monday was November's case. I ended up having to treat her twice on Monday and me three times, and then de-loused the house. Again. I didn't get to sit down until 9pm. Last night our toilet clogged, again, and I spent from 5pm until 8pm madly multitasking on homework, dinner, lice combing, toilet unclogging, bathing and getting the kid to bed. (I'm getting tired just reading about all of this)

Also, I found out last night that Ella (sister-in-law) lost the September Circle cowl and Koolhaas hat that I knitted for her. These are my first two projects that have bit the dust, and I'm surprisingly not pissed. I guess because Ella is spacey (both naturally and health induced) and they are accessories, so they didn't take that long to knit. I told Bruce last night that I was kind of surprised she'd managed to keep the hat as long as she had.

Regardless, I managed to finish up the sleeves for the Tiny Tea Leaves last night:


Though looking at the picture, it seems that I forgot to do some decreases on the right sleeve and I may have to rip back a little. Not such a big problem, as the sleeves didn't take me too long. Only about an hour or so of work. Oops.

I haven't worked on my Offset Raglan at all. It could be any number of things. I'm not sure I like the gauge. It's producing a really dense fabric, and with the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, it's a little stiffer than I'd like. I got gauge with the specified needle size (US 6/ 4mm), and I really just don't like knitting worsted yarns on that size needle.

Secondly, it's miles of stockinette, and I've been enjoying the zen-like concentration needed for lace projects recently (see Cherry Fizz).

Thirdly, I'm using a Susan Bates circular needle because my size 6 needles from an interchangable set that we shall not name died (and the replacement sent by the company that made them sucked) and the Bates is not as slick as I'd like for a yarn as sticky as Brown Sheep. It was also causing a little hand pain. (I like the Brown Sheep, and I like the Susan Bates needles, I just don't like them together.

My brown sheep isn't very brown.

All of which adds up to me not really enjoying the project and contemplating frogging it. I may try a different needle next week to see if that makes a difference, but I'm thinking this one is headed to the frog pond.

Bruce commented the other night that I'm getting much quicker to frog projects, and my reasons for this are twofold:

1. I'm more experienced as a knitter now (almost two years) and I'm learning my preferences for projects (gauge, needle size, etc)
   
2. I knit considerably faster now than I did before, which means that when I'm frogging, say, a scarf, I'm only frogging a few hours of work, instead of a few weeks worth.

Lots of growth as a knitter! Now I just have to take care of my little wrists, and the world will be full of love.

Also, I'm hoping against hope that there will be zero disasters this evening and I will actually be able to start work on my Interweave Knits submission. I have the yarn. I shall photograph it soon.