I think I've run screaming into the night before, but this one takes the cake. I've made so many mistakes on this shawl that I'm pretty disgusted with myself. It has slowed my knitting to a crawl, mostly because I can't see the string--
Oh, that's right. I was going to get a picture of that..hold on while I do that... And there you have it--obviously the tiny string on the left is the shawl thread, and on the right is normal dishcloth cotton.
So figure if you have trouble holding on to dishcloth cotton, imagine how hard it is to see this little stuff? Sorry the pic is so fuzzy. I was a bit too close to the subject, the lighting was bad (you know...the standard excuses.) It's not so much that I can't hang onto this stuff, although that fact does play havoc with my gauge, but more that I can't seem to keep the pattern straight. Now I know that a left-leaning decrease is an SSK and a right leaner is a K2Tog. I know this from SOCKS, for crying out loud, but couldn't we use an S for ssk and a K for K2tog? I mean, I realize that the back and forward slash show the direction of the lean, but they are simply TOO MUCH ALIKE, and I confuse them CONSTANTLY.
It's just a matter of reading the pattern, but I do mess these two up all the time--even an L and R would seem to be more appropriate for those of us who have mild cases of dyslexia where the forward and backslash are concerned...add to that the fact that I didn't even really KNOW what they were until high school, and I started knitting LONG before that.
Okay, no nasty comments from the peanut gallery out there.
But seriously, I know the idea is to make the chart look more like the knitting, but guess what? When I do a k1 over the top of a k1, I pretty much know what I'm doing and where I'm at on the chart, but stick in a decrease or a yarn over, and I'm pretty much lost. I do okay--as long as I keep my eyes on the correct row....and that's another story entirely.
I've taken to laminating my pattern and using a dry erase marker to check off the rows as I knit them. Adding precious time to completing the point (which, by the way, is 20 rows long and impossible to memorize). So it feels like it takes longer. And when I get to the end of the row and have stitches left over? Or if I'm a stitch short? I have to tink back 2 rows, and let me tell you--with this thin thread, IT. IS. NOT. FUN.
At all.
I have these teenie tiny circular needles--I think that they are size 4. And they are sharp as the dickens, believe me. I think they are Inox needles, but I still have trouble tinking the ssk and k2tog.
That is, if I can see that it's a ssk or k2tog--if I don't it's dropped stitch city, and that's a mess in and of itself. So far, I don't believe I have a problem there, but blocking will tell the truer story.
So, I'm getting frustrated, but I want to keep at it. I'm considering getting stronger reading glasses for this specific project--then again, I might head over to the eye doctor to see if my prescription has changed any. The glasses that they set me up with? I can't use them. I can only actually SEE through the bifocal--imagine how difficult that is when you're trying to read what's on the computer? I'd sooner use nothing than to suffer with the daily neck cramping.
Hmmm. Guess today was a rant day?
Onward and upward. Today, I teach two classes at JoAnn's Frandor Mall store. Apparently, a scheduling fiasco that has resulted in two classes at the same time today. This is going to be a bit crazy, I think. I'll be working with three students at learning to knit, and one student wants to make the hat on a loom. That should be much fun, because I've never knit on a loom before, so it will be a learning experience for me as well as for the student! That will be a neat trick! I'm also planning to take along the hat I made--the one in the sidebar, actually, to show this student the hat I made out of the swatch I taught her in a previous class on cables. I think she'll get a kick out of it. Maybe she'll actually want to make it?
Well, I suppose that I should get started learning how to use that loom so that I can teach the class. It's going to be a wild time!
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