It Just Keeps Going and Going and Going
I find myself disheartened. Red Scarf 2 is not nearly as far along as I had hoped it would be. This is how far one skein of Mountain Colors 4/8 gets me.
On the one hand, I could argue that I have less than 24 inches to go, since the minimum length is 60 inches. On the other, what am I going to do with whatever bit of yarn is left if I stop there? On the third hand, do I want to be carried off drooling to the Knitter's Rest Home this close to Christmas? Something I can envision happening if I force myself to knit that additional 12 to 14 inches.
Part of the problem is, the pattern is not quite mindless enough. I can knit this and listen to music, but not sing along. Or hold a conversation. Or watch an interesting movie. And you know, there's only so many times you can watch "Scooby Doo Where's My Mummy" or "Bionicle, Mask of Light" no matter how much your sons love them. Soon I'll be reduced to "Sheena She Alone Can Save Paradise." Or "Bubba Ho-Tep."
To keep myself from stabbing myself with my needles, I decided to attempt a new procedure: spit splicing. After all, Interweave Knits recommended it. I dutifully unravelled the ends I wanted to join.
Since the yarn proved to be 4-ply, I trimmed 2 plies each, overlapped the ends, spit on my fingers and rolled them together. Over-looking the gross-out factor (which is really unjust of me. Are my children's faces less sacred than my Mountain Colors? Am I even going to pretend they have never had a spit bath?), I'm quite impressed. It didn't come apart, even when I yanked.
It's hard to see, which I suppose is good, but the join looks fuzzy to me. A little felted, rather than twisted or plied. Then again, it really only shows up on one stitch out of how many thousands.
It's those thousands more that I still have to knit that are getting to me. I'm convinced soon I'll forget how to do anything but *knit 2, knit into the back, purl 1* repeat ad nauseum. It will invade my dreams, my driving, or worse, any other knitting I attempt for the rest of my life.
Can you spell INTERVENTION?
1 comment:
I can relate to your pain. My One Row Scarf is about 40" along. The first skein of variegated yarn, Patons, Classic Wool, was patterning nicely. I made sure when joining the second skein, it was the exact spot in the color repeat. But something's off. The second skein, same dye lot, is patterning but each successive repeat is longer than the one before. It's truly strange. But I am determined to stick it out. Stay strong. You'll be done sooner than you think.
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