Progress

I need to start making some serious progress here because, well, I am just a tiny bit bored with this project. I’m ready to move on. Wednesday night I was just beginning to feel like the rounds were going more quickly. I’m down more than 100 stitches from the beginning so they are–but I’d like them to pile up just a little more quickly.

I’m totally a glass half full person. I tend to look on the bright side, but I have learned that with my knitting those little pangs are often worth listening to–and that I will definitely be happier ripping back NOW than in the future when I’ve done even more knitting. So I love waste yarn. Yes, it takes time to take it off (I actually made Linda do it Thursday because I had other fish to fry) and then put it back onto the needles, but it allows you to see it, block it, step back from it, assess it.

I started to worry that the rate of decreases I was doing wasn’t right and I wanted to go back now if it needed to be different  I was a little unhappy that I didn’t have more of my square filled in, but I’m happy with the decreases.  It looks a little odd in the photo because I only blocked part of it last time I had it off the needles, and the waste yarn was a little short, so it is bunched up on the left.

So many times I’ve heard some knitter say “it’ll block out, don’t you think?” when they didn’t want to rip, but those pangs were starting. I know that all too often if it isn’t quite right now, it is not going to be later. Blocking is wonderful, and I can do wonders with a steam iron, but there are things that won’t change with the blocking.  Those are those things that give you pangs.  You know, you start to wonder if that is really big enough/too big to fit? Is that the same stitch gauge you got in your swatch?  Is this yarn really working?  Is it going to block out to the right gauge?  Did I do that ____ right?  So my rule is that you figure it out when you FIRST start having those pang of doubt. Take it off the needles if necessary, block it, measure it, take your gauge, look at it with a critical eye, try it on–whatever will put your mind to rest.  Check twice, knit once!  Sadly, it isn’t fool-proof, but it does give you a better perspective for moving ahead.

I was happy with my decreases and wanted to think about what the final piece was going to look like when I finished.  How those diagonals were going to look.  So I drew a little sketch.

I am now back knitting and pretty much at the stage that I start doing crazy math.  I find the math very entertaining and it gives me something to think about when I’m running or the knitting is so boring I need to amuse myself.  Yup.  There is always that point in my knitting where it is just knitting.  I listen to books, look at the newspaper, and do crazy math in my head.  So this is what I need to figure out.

• how many rows do I still have to knit
• how long will it take me to get through each increment of decreasing 10 stitches per segment (I’ve got a whole averaging scenario to work through!)
• what percentage of the knitting have I done–I think this may be algebra and I can’t do much of that in my head or even on paper.
• will I need to change the rate of decreases when I get to fewer stitches per side.