Thursday, March 06, 2008

I've got the stupids again

Sometimes the simplest knitting pattern just won't make it through my gooey brain cells to the knitting neuron. Sometimes I just get stupid and knit purl knit purl--and nothing else--suddenly is Russian.



Okay, this pattern is not a difficult one, if my assessment of it is correct. There are no stitches other than knits and purls, no yos, no ssks, no cables. But my knitting neuron was evidentally turned off yesterday.



Hmmmm, that doesn't look quite right, does it? So let's rip it out to the ribbing and try again.



If I remember correctly, there are only 12 rows to the pattern. Most are simply "knit" or simply "purl". There are two that say "*k 12, turn, p6, turn, k6, turn, p6, turn, k6 p6, turn, k6* and repeat from *", and the other row is reversed with k6 at the start and k12 at the end.

From what I can sort of understand, this one row takes a while to knit, what with all those turns and going back over what was already knitted on that needle, but should almost all of the actual knitting end up on one needle? No. It means I made a mistake. Twice.

Patience at an end, several hours of prime knitting time wasted, sock frogged. Twice. And I'm looking for another "simple" pattern. It's starting to look like a ribbed sock is all I can manage. I'm afraid to even think of Pomatomus. The words might leap off the page and clog up that knitting neuron and kill me.

And that nice dark Santa Fe colorway isn't looking too good to me right now, either.

5 comments:

Debbie T said...

Well, at least you remember what row you're on! I usually get lost in the pattern and forget which row I was working on. So, when I did my Monkeys, I had to take and write each row on an index card, punch holes in them, put rings through the holes and then flip the card each time I completed a row. Maybe you just need a break from socks. Period. :=)

Trillian said...

It might help to divide the stiches so there is a multiple of 12 st per needle. so, if you were using the 60 per the pattern, divide it as 12 12 12 24. then you could focus on one bubble at a time. that's how I'd do it

rita said...

Well, Deedee, every other row of the pattern (except the one that's the opposite of row 4) are either all knit or all purl, and since I never ever got to the end of row 4, I just gave up! I like the idea of putting each row of the pattern on index cards. I'll try that. I can never remember where I am, and I'm always making little tic marks on paper to show how many rows or stitches I've done.

That sounds like a good idea, too, Trillian. I had 72 stitches on the needles, so that was 18 on each. It was totally mindblowing. And I really messed up, because I wasn't even finishing one bubble at a time. It was back and forth, back and forth, never finishing some but making others wayyyy too big.

Nancy @ the Jersey Shore said...

Sometimes I have to put something aside for a while if it's giving me fits, rather than rip it out. (something I hate to do after "all that knitting time" can't waste those precious minutes!) Then, when I pick it up again, more often than not a lightbulb will click on (or the neutrons will fire!) and I'll get it! That is going on with my Lotus blossom shawl now..it's due to get picked up again. I do like your color though.

rita said...

Usually I'll put aside a project rather than impatiently rip it out, but this one was coming out nothing at all like the pattern. Alien-looking bizarre kind of thing.

*shudder*

Deedee, I think you're right. *sigh* I so want some pretty new socks.