Nightmarish Meshies

So its been 15 months since I wrote anything meaningful in this blog.  The last real "learning" experience I shared was that I was able to just grab some yarn and needles and make something without instructions or patterns or worrying about it. I have found that to be a very satisfying thing to do especially since I tend to buy yarn on the fly because its pretty and then realize that I really don't have a use for the yarn itself or I don't have enough to complete a project.  Sometimes I do buy enough to make something with, usually I'm thinking, "Oooh, sweater."  Forgetting that making a sweater is a long and arduous prospect for me. Even when I couldn't knit because of the neck thing, I still bought yarn...oodles and oodles of yarn...to make me "feel" better.

I do keep up with everything I make on my Ravelry account. I made many more of the frilly scarves from the crocheted specialty yarns that are popular now.  It took a while but I did get past the nightmarishness of the meshie yarns.  I still find them to be tedious but everyone loves the frilly scarves, including me so I continue to make more of them.

I keep trying to come up with ways to make it easier to knit them.  First, I started with unbundling the entire ball into a plastic project bucket. Then I pulled the mesh apart inch by miserable inch so that the top binding is available and opened up.  This is an "OK" process, its not fun for me though it does work to a degree. The yarn is still pretty wide so it ends up twisting over my working yarn finger such that I can't grab the little opening to knit into. I use this method when I really don't want to do a more effective method.

This is the "bucket" method:

I guess the most effective method is that I unravel and then pick up onto a spare (or two) 14" straight knitting needle.  I just take every other opening and load it onto the spare needle.  This is time consuming but makes for a little more fun in the knitting process.  I just hold the third needle in my left hand along with the working left needle and pull from it as I work.

This is the "spare needle" method:

Of course, the most ineffective method is the "straight off the ball" method.  Geeze, what a nightmare and of course, the first time I tried this I pulled the center out like I usually do with any yarn...very, very bad move.  Pulling from the center causes it to twist up until as mentioned above, it has to be dumped into a bucket and unspun it. The directions on the ball band clearly state not to pull from the center.  I really don't like to read instructions as I have mentioned in earlier blogs.

One of the shorter frillies I gave to my second cousin who is 8 years old for Christmas.  She really loved it and so did her grandmother (my aunt).  So my Aunt sends me two skeins of this stuff and wants two scarves made out of it.  I've finished one and still have the second to do.  They actually don't take all that long, they are just not that fun to make. This really shows that I'm a process knitter and not a product knitter.  It is great that these turn out so well and look so nice but I would not want to be knitting for the product all the time. The product is good but it really is secondary for me.

Just this past week I bought two more balls of Sashay yarn.  The manufacturers are really making some nice frilly yarns.  I guess I'll make myself two of these. How I overcome the effects of the nightmarish meshie is that I knit something fun in-between that I really like so that I don't get peeved.

Communications Breakdown

Well, it has been a while since I wrote in this blog.  I have learned so much these past 10 months its will be a trick to get it all written down.  I didn't really knit from January through May because I was found to have a herniated disc in my neck.  I wanted to knit, believe me but I really couldn't look down comfortably and my right arm would go numb periodically or hurt like the very devil.  I couldn't even enjoy reading which is, of course, my second love.  I couldn't sleep lying down which is tiring to say the least.

Once I started knitting again it was like falling in love all over again.  So I will do some installments on what all has been learned.  I will be listing all the baby stuff I've made.  Good grief I have knitted me some baby stuff.  And there's still more to do.

Until I get my picture loaded and my stuff together, I'll just say, its good to be back, its good to feel good.

LKWs

Pain in the Neck

So I was not able to knit for 4 days.  I had a serious pain in the neck...a pinched nerve. Ouch. It has been miserable, I couldn't read, I couldn't knit, I couldn't enjoy my usual comforts like my bed.  I've been sleeping in a recliner now for 5 days.  I am on an anti-inflammatory but still can't lay down in my bed at night.  I did knit for about an hour last night.  That was nice.

I am in my planning stages for my auld lang whine.  I am working on my lists of stuff to knit up this year.  At Christmas, my youngest niece was not opening the gift I gave her and her comment was that she'd just see what everyone else got because they all got the same thing in different colors.  So needless to say, she will never, ever get what the other girls get ever, ever, ever again.  Maybe that was her plan. So with that in mind, I can knit just about 33% more for the other girls.  I am good with that!

Also, to my wonderful amazement, my oldest niece is having a baby next year. I can concentrate on knitting for the new "girl" (or boy) instead of the cranky teen aged girl. And, even more wonderful, my husband has a niece that is due for a baby about the same time this year.  Jeepers, I better get to knittin'. To top that off, both of these babies to be have daddies that are going to Iraq in February. So my nieces will become moms without their husbands there to be with them.  That is a bummer to say the least.

I have also renewed my desire to knit for charity.  I have so much excess yarn I could make hats and mitts and scarves and whatevers...but again, I have visions of all the work I can do while I sit here with my pain in the neck!

As I mentioned in my last little bloggity-blah-blah-blah, I have 22 items on the needles that require attention. I have in fact listed them and prioritized them by percentage of doneness. I would prefer percentage of funness but well, I just like to knit.  Maybe I can get some pictures on here so that all this boring chit-chat will be less annoying (to me) and more enjoyable (for you).

I am back! almost...