You all made me feel SO much better! I was feeling completely incompetent, like any decent knitter could cast on five stitches in the round, increase to ten the next round and start doing YOs two rounds later. Thank you, thank you for making me see that this task was completely ridiculous!
But guess what? At about 1:45 AM I fucking did it.
[Okay, I promise that’s the last fuck for awhile. I’m sure I’m scaring away readers (while at the same time gaining some? ;-)) The combination of fucking and big humongous boobs can’t be good for the googlers out there!]
Was it the cake? Was it the chocolate IN the cake? Was it the wine? After literally cutting away half a skein (thankfully I’ve got a lot) to get to some good yarn and throwing the sticks across the room (and then immediately scrambling to find them – I mean c’mon, I just lost two of those buggers, I wasn’t about to lose five more. They’re expensive – even if they are killing me), I left the house to pick up Georgie at work. We went to dinner. I had some wine. Some delicious meatloaf and mashed potatoes (read: comfort food) and some triple mousse chocolate cake for dessert. I was frankly a bloated cow and more than a bit tired on the way home. But at the last light before our house, I had a realization.
When I was casting on, I was actually casting on six stitches because I like to do a K2TOG at the join of the round – so I was casting on six and splitting them up as two, two, two – and then I’d move the last stitch to the first needle for the join. That lonely last stitch kept getting dropped as I tried to knit the round. Every single fuck sorry time. So while we were sitting at the light and I was half a sleep feeling a tad nauseous, I thought, why not leave the one stitch on the MIDDLE needle, not the end. Maybe it would somehow be tighter or something so it would stay on. Honestly, I think that’s what did it. I came home, immediately sat down with the yarn and while it didn’t work right away, I could tell pretty quickly it was going to work. It still took another ten tries and I’m going to have to change out the yarn sooner than I thought, but I did it. And it looks pretty good if I don’t say so myself. I did about twenty rounds before I went to bed last night – and I don’t know if the center is actually right or not, but it looks really nice – it’s all closed up and has a neat little circle around it before the pattern starts. I’m going to work hard to get it on the 16″ Addis today. I really don’t like DPNs (did I mention that?) although, as promised, they’re getting easier to work with as the rounds progress, but I also really hate wood needles. I’m using Crystal Palace bamboo and between the wood and the cotton, everything keeps getting stuck. Very NOT nice. I want my Addis and I want them now.
I promise to have a picture soon. Very soon. As soon as I get them on my circulars. But, again, I thank you for making me understand that this was not an easy task. I am very, very proud right now.
Have a wonderful, fantastic, spectacular weekend. And I leave you all with this:
PS – Don’t forget, Sunday is International Pajama Day! Are you ready?
I started one project with four or five stitches knit in the round on dpns, and after a severe emotional breakdown, I went to my LYS and bought those *short* dpns. They’re about 2″ long, and it makes those first few rows sooooo much easier and manageable.
Thanks for the reminder about pj day. Can I wear them to a birthday party? 🙂
It sounds like you’ve already figured it out, but here’s what I do when I start.
1) Use your least slippery needles. Mine are bamboo or wood Brittanys. Using most metal needles is a recipe for heartbreak.
2) Use Emily Ocker’s circular cast on
(see http://jgibson.cts.com/knitting/ocker.htm for explanation and http://www.spellingtuesday.com/circular_co.html for pictures)
3) put your 5 sts on just 2 needles instead of 3. It’s a little fiddly, but not as fiddly as having 2 needles with 2 sts and 1 needle with one. That’s insane. Stay on 2 needles untill you have a reasonable number of sts (10 will probably work.) Then proceed as normal.
I have an absurd fascination with patterns like the one you’re working on. I just love those radiating spiral arms. I made a huge shawl with a very similar pattern, and I love it.
I’m not a huge fan of DPNs and have gone way out of my way to avoid using them whenever possible. However, recently I have been forcing myself to knit with them instead of using two addis. Crystal Palace dpns are my least favorite, as they always seem to splinter and snag the yarn. I prefer Brittany’s and have recently fallen in love with Scakel dpns-they’re smooth and lovely, well as lovely as dpns can be…
Jen