Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects. These last two weeks were mostly frustrating when it came to knitting. Two of my projects were not working out, so I put down the needles until I could figure out what I wanted to do with them.
If you remember a couple of weeks ago I was working on the latest project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month, a mesh type carry-all bag. Well, I finished the bag, after making more mistakes in the mess pattern, and started on the handles. The pattern said to make 2 handles 19" long and attach them according to the photo. That's where the problems started. In the photo, it looked like the bag only had 1 handle worn over the shoulder. After some measuring, I determined that the handle had to be longer than 19" if I (or most adults) wanted to use the bag as pictured. Dilemma! I decided to follow the pattern, make 2 handles, and figure it out once they were done. Well, that didn't work out so well. The handles were too short to put over my shoulder, yet too long to carry in my hand without the bag and all of its contents dragging on the ground. Darn! So, I then decided to make 1 long handle by adding onto one of the handles using the yarn from the second handle. It's better, but I somehow managed to sew the handle on backwards the first time! I think it looks okay now, but it was frustrating figuring it all out.
The other bothersome project was a cabled scarf I was knitting for myself. First of all, I had lots of trouble following a pretty straight forward pattern. I read the pattern and knew how it should look like, but when I started knitting, it didn't turn out. I'm chalking it up to being distracted by the TV rather than several senior moments. ;) Then, I got about 3" done before I decided I didn't really like it. I'm using a 70% acrylic, 30% wool worsted weight yarn with the suggested needle size of 5.5mm. That size might be a little too large because it's coming out lacy, light and airy and not really thick and cuddly like a winter scarf should be. Uggg...After knitting my husband's scarf that seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r, I certainly don't want to make a scarf for myself that I don't love. So, it sits in my knitting basket at 3" long. By the way, the colour is a bit off in the photo. It's a cream-coloured fisherman's Aran yarn.
I like the middle cable section, but that's where it's the most lacy. There are holes big enough for my fingers to pop through where the two cable lines come together and then split apart. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I guess one option is to use smaller needles. The yarn has been sitting around for years and I was trying to use it up for something/anything, so scrapping it all together isn't a big loss. Another idea is sure to come along at some point.
You'd think after all of that I wouldn't try to do any more knitting, however, I'm still working on my temperature scarf. Luckily, it didn't give me any trouble. Here's the latest, with a side-by-side comparison with the scarf from two years ago (old one on the left, new one on the right).
It's a little hard to see, but we've had fewer hot days (red) and more cooler days (light yellow), but a longer more consistent "middle"/orange range. I'm running out of orange and hope I have enough to finish the scarf in May/June next year. Perhaps I should go purchase more now before they discontinue the yarn or something.
Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts. If you've done any crafting this week, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so other can enjoy your creations.
Busy fingers. For your new scarf, I'd knit it in 4.5 mm needles. That's my usual size for worsted weight and I find that cables look good at that tension, but will still leave soft enough scarf.
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