Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A Sad Sontag Saga


Well, I am somewhat bummed. I've been planning on starting the knitted sontag, or bosom buddy, from the Ragged Soldier site for the past few weeks. I finally got the correct sized needles so yesterday I started it, and, much to my suprise, made great progress. (Or, what is great progress for me, anyway). I don't knit much and when I do it tends to go soooooo sloooooowwwly. Well, I was happy to have completed 13 of the 18 rows of alternating basket weave blocks that form the back of this garment yesterday. I planned on finishing up the back portion today and getting a good start on the front wrap pieces.

This morning I wondered why my sontag back was still rectangular shaped, instead of fanning out into a nice triangular shape to cover my back. I realized I had forgotten to increase my stitches at the beginning of each row. Oops.

Sooo. . .I had to totally unravel what I had knit yesterday and I have spent most of today re-knitting the sontag back. At last I am back to where I was yesterday afternoon and I am suffering from knit brain. It is a condition I get whenever I spend hours knitting on something. You know, when you close your eyes and you still see yarn slipping over flashing needles? Similar things happen to me when I sew for too long. I see a perpetual line of stitching beneath a needle going up and down, in slow motion.

At least knitting is productive. And it doesn't require much thought beyond counting so I spent a good deal of time thinking of various things, like little things I am making for some friends of mine who are expecting a baby in a few months, and that led to thoughts of my own new baby, which led to thoughts of the attic, (where the wee baby clothes are stored), which led to thoughts of cleaning since the attic is so dusty. . .well, you get the idea. I dwelt on thoughts of cleaning for so long that I began to yearn for the smell of Pine Sol so I decided to "reward" myself by cleaning the bathroom after I finished knitting my 13th row! Beware the perils of knitting too much at once!

Love,

Sarah

7 comments:

  1. Oh, that I had fallen into the peril of cleaning too much! Sadly, that will never be my particular vice! I'm glad you got back on track and got some cleaning done in the process!

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  2. I apparently have a reputation for knitting a bit and then ripping it all out. I never thought I did that much ripping, but apparently I do. I hope it goes better for you the second time around. :)
    ~Sarah

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  3. I too am making a bosom buddy. It is for somone in our reenacting group. It is taking longer than I had hoped. So don't give up!
    Faith G.

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  4. Sounds really teadious. I have never been able to get into knitting. I hope it works better for you the second time around. God Bless!

    Lauren

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  5. I don’t knit, but I crochet. My brother use to find it intriguing and wonderful fun to unravel crocheted work, so when I made a mistake and have to undo several rows, I often gave it to him to unravel. It was almost fun to watch the delight he got out of doing that! (Oh, and my brother is older than me, so we are not talking about a little boy having fun!) Anyway, cleaning bathrooms is not my favorite room to clean and don’t seem too “rewarding.” Really, knitting to much must do things to your head!

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  6. Oh, Sarah, I hate when that happens! (And it happens to me a lot, though I've been knitting for 12 years now... I'm working on socks and just the first one has been ripped out four times now!) At least you caught your mistake now. That yarn is so pretty! I can't wait to see the finished product :)

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  7. ooh, I was gonna make one of those....but then couldn't understand the knitting pattern. Its got shoved to the bottom of my list. But I'll probably make one using lots of little triangles sewing in a patchwork kinda way. (I was taught to knit by sewing loads of triangles for blankets so its the only way I can cast off is my reducing stitches till I'm down to one and tying a knot.) Although I need to finish the scarf I started 2 years ago (its only 1 metre long).

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Thank you for your lovely thoughts!