Still Fallible After All These Years

For the THIRD TIME IN A ROW, I might add.

Yesterday it re-dawned on me that, like so many other things in these parts, this project has a deadline attached. Several other projects being temporarily stalled pending arrival of additional supplies (whether of materials from Out In the World or of focus mojo from Inside My Chaotic Brain), this one became the obvious candidate for immediate cast-on, not only because it really does need to be done soon but because it really… Shouldn’t. Take. Long.

So yesterday I frogged the swatch, made a number of sequential about-faces on pattern stitch selection, and on a sudden whim cast on for a simple cowly thing using the Fan Lace from BGW-I.

It’s a pretty simple repeat, though it has a couple of minor annoying features – like the sequence of SSKs that I had totally forgotten about because, well – the last time I used this pattern I adapted it so heavily that the version I used ended up bearing little resemblance to the original; it is in fact the basis for the Top-Stitching Pattern in “Golden West,” and I swear I didn’t realize how extensively I had modified it then until I sat down last night confidently thinking, hey, I already pretty much know this anyway, so… wait a minute, where’d all those extra YOs and decreases come from, huh?

Anyway – now that I’ve reminded myself how the original worked, I will probably flip the direction of the whole thing so it uses k2togs instead of SSKs, making it that much quicker and more efficient to work. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Unlike the candidates I was seriously considering last week, this pattern doesmake the stitches work at angles to each other because of the distance between increases and decreases. I’ve decided I want that after all, not only because it’s flattering for the yarn and pretty in itself, but because it will give the piece a naturally wavy edge.

Besides, before I made the decision I had lost count of my cast-on, and when I counted up it turned out I happened to have 110 stitches; the pattern calls for a multiple of 11, so obviously it was meant to be.

So I re-familiarized myself with the pattern and began working it. Worked one full repeat. It was looking pretty nice. Then it hit me that I had completely neglected to work the 4-row garter stitch edge I’d planned on before starting the pattern.

Ooops.

I flirted briefly with the idea of leaving it as it was and coming back later, picking up stitches in the selvedge and working a retroactive garter border. Then I remembered the nature of handspun and madness and I laughed myself out of that idea but QUICK.

Frogged. Cast on again. Worked 4 rows in garter stitch. Started working in pattern.

Guess what.

You know that instruction we always laugh at? The one that says “Join, being careful not to twist”? And we look at it and think, sheesh, you gotta be a real clumsy clueless n00b to need to be told THAT.

The other day someone on Ravelry called me “The Mystic Poo of Smart.”

Well, I’m here to tell you… EVEN THE MYSTIC POO OF SMART needs to be told to be careful not to twist. Furthermore… the Mystic Poo of Smart would do well to heed that direction. And furthermore – even afterheeding that direction and paying close attention to that very thing? the Mystic Poo of Smart would do well not to get too cocky, lest she find herself tarred with the brush of Real Clumsy Clueless N00b.

Because I swear I was careful not to twist. I was.

And yet… behold me last night, well into round SIX of an undoubtedly TWISTED non-cylinder before I even noticed what I’d done.

(When is a cylinder not a cylinder? When it’s not a Moebius either, because doing this gives you a full twist, not a half-twist. Still, I submit that having Moebius on the brain has not tended to make my mental processes more straightforward, of late.)

Frogged. Cast on again. (This of course is why I still have the option of flipping the stitch pattern into reverse. Because I have to start it all over again anyway.)

And I gotta tell you… the Mystic Poo of Smart is now well and truly nervous about joining to work in the round.

Stay tuned.

Pygora Project Update:

On hold pending arrival of further supplies. Specifically, I’m waiting to see how well the additional pygora matches what I have already. Some of it is from the same fleece, but some is from the mother of the source of same, and I think it’s a little whiter. Which will be fine, but will mean I’ll probably want to think about making the colors blend as I go.

Tsock Flock Club Update:

Tsock #6 of 2008 has begun arriving at its respective destinations, and pretty soon I think I’ll be at liberty to do the reveal. At last!!!!! I’ve been sitting on this for a long, lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong time.

Also, Tsock #1 of 2009 (!) is well underway, but there too the M. P. of S. has had a bit of a comeuppance. The cool cute fun part is working out well, but the weird idea I had for the colorway…? was kind of a mistake. Or was kind of not communicated right. Or something. At any rate, I’ve knitted enough of it now to be able to confirm that poor Jennifer now gets to go back to the drawing board and try to re-channel her psychic link to the capricious mind of the designer.

On a cheerful note, though – the cool cute fun part includes a reappearance of our old friend the Flame Chevron in a whole different guise, and in a slightly kinky relationship with a sort of, well, pseudo-entrelac thing I think of as entrefake. And it really IS cool and cute and fun, so again… stay tuned.