click on the button to see what new thing I’ve gotten myself into.  Isn’t it a great pattern? 

Are you thinking I must be nuts to take on another project?  That the fact that I nearly impaled my foot the other night should be sending me a clear signal?

As I was knitting away on this last evening, I was thinking of starting a sock project.  They are ever so portable and have the added benefit of being relatively quick.  It is taking me about 5 minutes a row on Halcyon and I will probably need a diversion.

Anyone else need a diversion?  Come on — let’s go spearfishing!  added bonus: the title of this knit along makes me feel sporty!

Some fans of purlingswine don’t like the knitting content.  They think it’s boring.  (It is actually the most exciting thing in my life, which paints a pretty bleak picture of my day-to-day doings.)

If you are amongst these people, don’t bother reading today’s entry.  It is yet another instance where Ann screws up a project and comes perilously close to needing medical intervention …..

I need to state the obvious.  Here is the Meriam Webster’s definition of Halcyon:

Main Entry: [2]halcyon
Function: adjective
Date: 1540
1 : of or relating to the halcyon or its nesting period
2 a : CALM, PEACEFUL b : HAPPY, GOLDEN c : PROSPEROUS, AFFLUENT

take special note of #2 – I am sure this usage is what the designer had in mind when she named the pattern.  I know it’s what I had in mind when I ordered this pattern.

Here’s something else I know  – I had to rip back 10 rows last night.  In the larger picture of an entire sweater, I realize that 10 rows are not really all that much.  However, I would like to point out that at the moment when I ripped out those 10 rows, I had a grand total o f 20 rows finished — this is over 1/2 of my work ripped out!  (and who said I couldn’t do math??). 

Here is a lousy picture of the problem.  Do you see the extra row? 

editor’s note: I had very bad knitting karma last night and almost impaled my foot on a dpn while taking this picture. metal #2’s – all you non knitters, that means sharp and hard!

Remember yesterday when I tried to talk myself out of the gauge swatch?

Last night I tried to talk myself out of the ripping.

what difference is one little row going to make? it’s on the back of the sweater for godssakes! don’t be an idiot, no one will notice! You can fiddle with it during blocking! It’s just one row – one row on size 3 needles no less!!

But then I thought of my fellow knit-alongers.  My intrepid Celtic Dreamers.  They wouldn’t stand idly by and let this atrocity linger.  They would act – swiftly and with confidence.

So after a bit of dilly dallying, snivelling and whining, I acted too.  (like a big baby!)

It’s all better now.

What?  How did I end up with an extra row anyway?

I really can’t do math — in one little instance I seemed to have forgotten that the pattern is graphed for every row.  Every single row.  That #2 on the graph means the actual second, wrong side row and not the second row of the right side.

~sigh~

As all ‘good’ knitters know, the first thing to do when starting a project is the gauge swatch.  Why is it that I always have to force myself to do this, that I am not always successful, that I try to talk myself out of the swatch? 

What did the swatch ever do to me?

Whenever I actually do one, it never ceases to be helpful – either by showing me corrections I need to make, or allowing me to knit the garment with some confidence that the end result will fit.

So, my first step in casting on for Halcyon was to try to talk myself out of knitting a swatch.

Thank God I rarely listen! 

I did a gauge swatch and was instantly alarmed and confused.

1. the yarn is loosely plied and pretty dark making it very difficult to account for individual stitches when casting on – I am screwed.
2. why did they say gauge was in reverse stockinette stitch?  isn’t that just the ‘wrong’ side of stockinette?
3. then I was getting gauge with the size 5’s – which are supposed to be for the ribbing, so I assume the gauge was meant to be when using the size 7’s. 

I couldn’t believe it — I am not usually that far off.  Is it me, the yarn, my new Addi’s?  I even went so far as to have a conversation with myself about using the recommended needles anyway simply because I could not wrap my mind around knitting this yarn with size 5’s – which means the ribbing is using the 3’s!

So now I am using 3’s and 5’s on a worsted weight!  This goes against everything I thought I knew. I keep reminding myself that is where the gauge is, that you can’t argue with math, so that is what I must use.

In addition to all of this, my Boar’s chest measures 42".  I needed to decide between knitting the 46" or the 49".  Intuitively, I was leaning toward the 46".  He seems like a 46". 

I consulted this site to find out more about ease.  Halcyon falls into the loose fitting category, which means I need to knit the 49".

Once again, math dazzles and frightens me.

…never get me down!  It is a rainy, rainy Monday here — the perfect opportunity to start in on Halcyon. 

I completed the Knitpicks socks over the weekend and promise a picture tomorrow.  I am determined to keep this pair of socks for myself!  These are the third pair I’ve knit in as many weeks and I don’t have a single sock of my own to show for my efforts.  Speaking of socks as gifts, check out the great sock wrappers at Knitting Fool.

My daily dose of blog reading has turned up The Daily Knitter – a new (to me at least) knitting resource – complete with crossword puzzle!  Thanks to Blogdogblog for the link!

So there you have a completely disjointed entry — my mind is a bit jumpy today!  **probably due to the fact that I have not smoked 209 cigarettes over the past 1 week, 3 days, 11 hours and 42 minutes; thereby saving $56.11 and 17 hours and 25 minutes of living!