A visit to the frog pond...

People think knitting is a calming activity, favoured by grandmas in rocking chairs. In fact, it takes someone very bloody-minded and often brutal. You finally try on a cardigan you've worked on, on and off, since April 2015, only to discover the armholes are ridiculously small and although the cardigan looks ok, you'll probably never wear it unless at least some (if not all) of it is tinked/frogged. It's supposed to look like this - I can promise you, I don't look anywhere near as cheery as that model! To get a finished object that you're happy to wear, and that looks professional enough to be seen in public, takes an awful lot of persistence and skill sometimes! Plus a large dose of humility (something I am NOT good at!) to admit it's a total loss and you need to start again.

We had my mum and grandma over for Sunday lunch a few weeks back, and I showed grandma some of my projects. The "Quick sweater" I started during some Ravellenic games - yes, the irony of that name is not lost on me - looks like it is now too big for my newly svelte frame. I did at least note on Ravelry that I added 8 stitches to make it bigger, but I think the problem's more serious than that. It's a very nice discontinued wool from Rowan. The pattern was designed using larger than normal needles, as one standard pack of the yarn wasn't quite enough for an adult sweater. Now I'm idly wondering if tank tops are ever likely to come back into fashion.

Some days it hardly feels like it's worth chewing through the restraints...

On a more positive note, I've ordered my first cable for DAK8, and I'm off to measure someone up tonight. She's elderly and allergic to anything synthetic, and I said I'd knit her a jumper or two. I plan on taking some machine-knit garments as examples of my work - although I'm not averse to hand knitting for someone, she'll get it a lot quicker if I can machine-knit it for her. She's not seen any machine knits so I want to dispel whatever preconceptions she has about them being somehow inferior or even distinguishable from hand knits.

Current mood: annoyed