So now I get to unpick the bindoff (for the second time, actually - I BO way too early before because I didn't realize how wide the blanket was turning out, and couldn't handle a squat-rectangle-shaped blanket) and spend more hours (probably six) dropping a stitch down a meelion rows of knitting and picking it back up.
Self, what happened on Row 20? Why have you not looked closely at Row 20, a row you knew to be problematic, until after you bound off for the second time?
See the mistakes? The really freaking obvious ones? Sigh. There goes my afternoon.
Hey Orooni, you haven't posted for a while, surely there is some other stuff you've screwed up royally in the last month or so, isn't there?
Of course, dear reader. Let us turn to the Thank-You Hat.
As awesome as this picture is, I fear it doesn't hide the ladder, the strange misshapenness of the pom-poms, and - well, it may hide the weird hugeness. (A new camera entered my life, and although I have figured out how to take terrible pictures with it, sometimes it does well in spite of me. This color, for example, is dead-on.)
Also, this hat is for a boy. And I'm telling myself that it's red, not pink, but it might be pink, and really I should probably stop thinking about it.
So, a friend of Other's e-mailed us up one evening and asked if we'd like tickets to a David Sedaris reading that night. HECK YES, we would like them, so we picked up the tickets and went and it was awesome and the tickets had obviously been expensive and so we wanted to do something nice for the friend. They couldn't use the tickets themselves because they couldn't get a babysitter for their (adorable) 14-month-old, so the obvious answer here was to knit something cute for the kiddo.
After a quick trip to the local-ish yarn store, I was armed with a lovely skein of (superwash) Malabrigo Rios in Ravelry Red. And the Pompom Bear hat knit up quickly on size 9 needles, and also it unfortunately knit up huge on size 9 needles. Quick test, yes it does fit my head, my head is probably much bigger than a 14-month-olds, ergo: froggy frog frog.
CO the next smallest size. Knit knit knit, halfway done, wait this is still huge, froggity frog frog frog.
Go down 2 needle sizes. CO same size as last time. Knit knit knit, yes, this looks like the right size, onto the pompoms.
Lesson: pompoms kind of suck, and pompoms made out of slippery superwash yarn are ridiculously easy to pull apart. Ergo: this gift is terrible, an embarrassment really, and why is this stupid yarn so slippery and drapey and GROW A SPINE, YARN, and really, I've been knitting for seven years and am being thoroughly pwned by a baby hat.
I would say, self, stick to baby blankets, but we've seen how those go.
That was the low point. I quit knitting for about a week in protest, then pulled it together, used a surgeon's knot in sewing thread and a surgeon's knot in non-superwash malabrigo in a similar color to cinch the pompoms as much as possible, sewed in the ends, blocked it, and shipped it off to the recipient, who is lovely and gracious and who refrained from saying any mean and obvious things about the hat to Other's face. Yayyyy, victory.
Here is a dramatic shot of the Rufus Textured Cardigan I'm making out of KP Swish DK in Sugarplum.
This is all the progress I made during my 3-hour gestational diabetes torture test, which of course I had to frog once I realized that my gauge was off. I'm now knitting it on much smaller needles, so good news! It will be windproof! If, of course, I ever finish it. There are lots of steps involved - seaming, decreasing at regular, predictable intervals, producing parts knit to specific lengths and widths - all of which are more taxing than making a stupid pompom or several feet of 3x3 rib. Maybe if I live long enough it will be finished in time for a great-grandchild.
Anyway, I passed the GD test with flying colors, so at least my pancreas is doing something right.