green.ketzle.net: knitting

today is the day. heads down, let's get to it...

4:13 pm: frantically knitting garter stitch -- there are 19 rows in the border, and then the bind-off. i took out all the stitch markers so it is truly mindless.

7:29 pm: it's harder to take a picture of this than you might imagine: the icelandic bind-off. i really like this for garter stitch blankets-- a strong line but stretchy enough to block wider. and fairly easy once i get into a rhythm; it is easy to keep the tension consistent as well.

8:38 pm: done--both my hands and the knitting.

i'll save the glamour shot for after the blocking. [please excuse the carpet, upon which the cat has been shedding with alarming frequency; poor thing is so hot she will actually pull tufts out...]

good night, sleep tight.

hope for finishing springs eternal.

the plan is to knit as much as i can through the 29th, and use the 30th and 31st for the garter stitch border at the top and provisional blocking.

the hope is there, faintly glimmering, but in reality, i am skeptical i'll finish on time. having a bit of an eeyore moment...

finished a 12 row repeat with minimal pain.

it sounds counterintuitive but it feels as though the knitting motion helps. maybe it reminds all the body parts where they belong and what they should do...

knitting as physical therapy AND psychological therapy. wonder drug.

i can probably get one more row out of it, but for all intents and purposes that's two skeins down, two to go.

i wanted to be through three by tomorrow so we'll see if i can finish this month or not. the neck/shoulder/arm has decided to be a long-term issue so i am devising better knitting strategies rather than giving it up; knitting keeps me sane.

and i technically don't have to finish the fourth skein -- just 64% of it will make for 800 yards...

the neck/shoulder/arm thing is wreaking havoc with my schedule.

i am resisting the urge to powerknit to catch up as i know i'll just make things worse, but i really want to finish this in august. i am a little less than 2/3 a skein behind now, based on the stitch marker i placed when i finished the first skein, and it is going to mean 12 rows a night to get back on schedule and stay there.

i have a physical therapy appointment tomorrow so i intend to keep the knittng break going until at least wednesday. and then? try to ease into it and see how i feel.

patience, patience, patience...

with the painful neck and arm issue, and i was afraid i wouldn't be able to knit at all.

but if i am deliberate, and slow, and pay careful attention to my posture, i can still knit without making things worse or undoing any progress. so, yay! i'm not going to overdo it, but i think i can do several rows at a time.

it is finally looking blanket-like now that i am 1 1/3 skeins in.

failing fail of failure.

this is the second time a secret knot has suddenly unknotted itself when used with worsted weight yarns. this, after i tugged on that thing as if my knit depended on it.

so bloody frustrating to have to tink back 1 2/3 rows...

and especially so when i wasted so much time on it; i was hoping to catch up one or both of the days i missed with the neck thing. it is still a thing but i am medicating for the moment, after hitting the urgent care. my doctor is back in town friday and i'll have a chat with him then about a better, hopefully more permanent, solution.

it has not sorted itself out.

in fact it was much worse and i did not knit any rows at all this evening.

this would be an area of concern.

if i were in the right mood, i could finish the first skein tonight.

but i am in the wrong mood.

i did knit the required 6 130 stitch rows though, mood be damned...

i slept wrong and my neck is bothering my shoulder blade which is bothering my arm which is bothering my hand. here's hoping it sorts itself out soon.

not sure knitting a wool blanket in august was a great plan, but i'm sticking with it.

3 repeats done and i've almost finished the first skein so right on target.

it is indeed easily memorized.

i need to get through about a skein a week so we'll see how the pace i've set of at least 6 rows a night is going to work.

pretty sure i'll have to pick it up a little...

pretty sure i also need to pay more attention to the fourth repeat of the pattern. if i'm going to make a mistake -- miscount, drop a stitch, forget a yarn over -- it's going to be on the fourth repeat.

bottom garter stitch border done, stitch markers placed, onto the pattern!

it is pretty simple and should be fairly easy to memorize as long as i keep track of what line i am on.

also must remember to start and end on line 5...

i never correctly guess the right amount of yarn needed for a long tail cast-on of more than 100 stitches the first time. but this time? nailed it. perfect.

only knitters understand this particular thrill.

this is the beginning of my loopy ewe camp project. i didn't do one or two but thought i could use the pressure of a deadline to just get this done and out of the way, so three it is. the challenge: use at least 800 yards of yarn in a pattern published 2015 or later. so, 880 yarns of cascade 220 in gray, for the little one blanket, being knit for a coworker's first child due september.

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