ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

Did you miss me? No? Oh, well, never mind.

In any case, if anyone was checking the little blog, I am sorry for the lack of updates last week. The mother of one of my close friends died early in the week, and I didn’t feel so chatty. Then Mr. Rogers died. I feel as if my childhood is being snatched away from me. Does anyone remember when Prince Tuesday was scampering around the Land of Make Believe with a small, metal funnel, yelling “Super Funnel!”? I loved that when I was little. I didn’t have a funnel, so I had to make do with a little strainer thing, but it was still pretty good. I miss you, Mr. Rogers. Thank you for making even everyday things seem wonderful.

FELTING FOLLY…

Some knitting was still accomplished, though less than usual. My mother and I finished our felted clog endeavor. Felting was highly traumatic, however. Following the instructions on the pattern, we zipped our clogs into pillow cases and started the felting process. One and a half hours later (yes, you read that right) they were still enormous. Patrick Ewing sized. (Maybe I should have sent them to Patrick Ewing as a little fan gift. Hm. Well, I didn’t.) The next evening, after determining that no miraculous, open-air felting had taken place, we threw the clogs back in the washer. This time, we did not put them in pillow cases. This was my highly scientific suggestion; I somehow thought that the agitation would increase and that the clogs would felt up faster. Well, I know not if the lack of pillow cases made a difference, but the felting did occur, after only twenty minutes. The clogs were dry by this past Saturday, and I spent a lot of time scuffing around in them this weekend. Very warm and comfy. Now the dear boy wants a pair. Dang.

…AND TOTAL FAILURE

After the clog completion, I felt the need to start something new. The Koigu scarf is still perking along, but it’s not a great sit down and knit for two hours sort of project. So… I cast on for a hat, using Nanook, a fuzzy novelty yarn from Artfibers. The yarn is nice, soft and furry and synthetic. The colorway I chose is bright blue and mossy green. The hat was a very cute pattern, ribbed at the bottom, then stockinette, then ribbed again at the top to pull the hat in, without closing the top completely. Sort of like a short, fat sleeve, joined into a tube.

Tragically, the yarn was way too soft to actually hold up the ribbed top of the hat. The floppy hat I ended up with made me look like smurf who had just fallen into a vat of blue-green dye. Not so good. Looking back, I should have realized that the hat was flawed earlier. I saw which way the wind was blowing pretty early on, but I kept going anyway. This is my first real knitting failure.

Now, don’t go thinking I lead some sort of charmed life in which my every project looks as if it had been ripped from the pages of Vogue. I have had numerous crochet disasters. I paid my dues. This was the first knitting disaster, though. And, to make it worse, I could not save the yarn. The fuzziness would not unravel at all. I just have to trash it. This is very depressing. Maybe I should stick with Lambs Pride and the fabulous hats of Staceyjoy from now on. Or maybe I will try a London Beanie. Larry’s is very nice. Go check it out. You saw it already? Well, go look again.

SO NOW WHAT?

I think I have nose-dived into some never ending, small project rut. Small projects can be fun and provide instant gratification, but they can also be a bit irritating. Every time I turn around, I have to do some more finishing. Not my favorite. I need to start a project that I can just sit down and work on for a week without being done.

And so now, we’re going to try for a little interactivity. If you’re still reading this long-winded entry (lots of time on your hands, huh?) please take a moment and let me know which of these projects you think I should start. (By the way, try to keep to yourselves the fact that I actually have the yarn for all of these. And more. Shush.) Here they are:

Moll, from the Rowan Cork Collection (middle images on third row of thumbnails)
Shriek, from Rowan No. 32
Cabled Raglan, from Debbie Bliss’ first Noro book (scroll down, it’s after the entrelac throw)

Any thoughts?