Knitting Karma

Let's assume for purposes of this post that there is such a thing as karma. Assuming that I would have to say that I did something, and I am not sure what that something is to mess up my knitting karma. My projects all seems a bit off right now. Exhibit 1, the baby blanket won't be done for the shower this weekend. Pulling out the points still doesn't give me enough yarn to do the open work border. I need to buy one more skein of Shine.

Exhibit 2, my new yarn. Isn't it lovely? It will be for that Modesitt twisted float shrug that was on the cover of the fall VK. It is so amazingly soft and will be a dream to work with. How does one, however, swatch a circle? How do you evenly measure your stitches over a curve? I couldn't figure it out. The the twists, I will be dropping yarn every other stitch and twisting the yarn around the other color. I don't think I can do this two handed. Surely there must be a better way that I am not seeing. Then I dove in and tried to start the project. I had a hole in my fabric. This was because I forgot to check the VK errata page, dumb move on my part. Then I started, and tore again, for a reason I can't remember right now. Finally, I decided that since this will be a warm wool sweater and it is kind of spring now, there is no point to starting the shrug and that I will hold off until August or September to start.

Exhibit 3: York, the shoulders/sleeves have what was called an "Edwardian" look to them. In other words there is a raise poof where the sleeves meet the shoulders. Not the best look in the world.

Exhibit 4: After finishing one skein of my Misti lace weight alpaca I decided to reward myself by starting a new shawl. I have been dyeing to make the Frost Flower and Leaves Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. This urge existed for some time, but was increased when I saw the finished version that See Eunny Knit made as her Olympic project (way at the bottom of the link). I bought some Lacey Lamb lace weight yarn when I went out to San Diego in February. I decided that this yarn would be what I would use for the shawl. To start with I know that I only have about 1/2 of what I need, but I decided to be an optimist and start anyway. I think that I have the other 2 skeins on order. That isn't the bad karma part. The bad karma comes in that I needed to start this thing at least 4 times before I really got going. This is NOT typical for me.

Exhibit 5 I will save for another day, but I will tell you that it involves a "cap sleeve" sweater that doesn't have any shoulder/sleeve shaping at all, do I not understand what cap sleeves are?

On a positive note, I did do some more work on fricken Fichu, and may be about 1/2 way done. This isn't because I did a ton of knitting on it, but rather because I decided that it would be a max of 2 skeins of lace weight alpaca and not 3 skeins. As much as I am hating the project I have to admit that it isn't because of the designer. The shawl is meant to be a beginner shawl, and is meant to be knit on size 6 or size 8 needles. Following the instructions I should be done by now. It is just that I decided I wanted to knit at a tighter gauge and am using size 3 needles. I therefore have to include additional repeats to get the shawl done. I am bored. The shawl seems endless. But the pattern is simple enough and short enough that for beginner lace, it would probably be good.