Monday, June 16, 2008

turning Japanese

I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day and WWKIP day. Sadly I did no knitting in public on Saturday because my plans to go to the baseball game were ruined by US Airways, who couldn't bother to get my husband home from Charlotte Friday night, forcing him and his coworkers to rent a car and drive home, which in turn left me with a very cranky, sleepy Josh on Saturday, unfit for public viewing. Sigh. I detest the airline industry, and I have to fly at least 3 more times this year. Just thinking about it is making me grumpy. They probably should outlaw knitting needles on planes, because I'm not above stabbing some incompetent ass in the eye (although the incompetent ones are rarely on the plane; they're usually on the ground somewhere making poor decisions and stranding passengers while laughing maniacally).

Contributing to my general grumpiness: the prophecy has been fulfilled; I have run out of yarn for LBT! I've still got one shoulder and the neckline to do, requiring at most half a ball of yarn. So, do I order yet again from WEBS (which will require me to buy even MORE yarn because I can't justify paying them to ship just one ball)? Stalk people on Ravelry with my yarn in their stash and beg them to sell it to me? The worst part is, I think the tank is going to turn out really well, so I'm in a big hurry to be wearing it; it's not particularly flattering on the sofa where it is currently resting. Honestly, I can't believe how much trouble this project is causing me, given how relatively easy the actual knitting has been!

I learned a new technique with this project, Japanese short rows (hence the post title; remember that old song? Oops, showing my age . . .). They turned out absolutely perfectly invisible on one side, but sadly did not work out as well on the other, where I have 2 odd-looking bumps (I will take pictures, if the tank is ever done!). I think the "good" ones are where I was short row-ing on the knit side, and the "bad," on the purl side. Not worth frogging for, but annoying nonetheless. Still, although I have limited experience, at this point I prefer this method to traditional short rows--I always wind up with little holes working the traditional way. If you're going to give it a shot, I suggest buying some tiny safety pins or removable markers; I had to scrounge around my house for pins and came up with some quite large ones that were more in the way than anything.

1 comment :

Mrs. Homesteader said...

when you re-order yarn, can you request a specific dye lot, or how did you do this? I'm running out of yarn for my Hogwarts sweater and don't want to end up with an obvious mismatch...