Knit, frog, knit

I have been doing an awful lot of knitting lately. I have pictures of some of it, which I have yet to upload so that I can use them. So, there are some pictures coming. The rest of the knitting hasn't been very picture-worthy, though.

Designing is one of those activities where I often end up knitting three or four times as much as the final object shows. Or more, depending on how good I am at guessing what to do with the yarn before I actually try it.

You see, I am a closet perfectionist. I usually pretend to be all zen about things, and I often let the errors stay in a piece if they're small. But when I'm designing? Then the perfectionist has full reign to be picky.

Two repeats too many in that border? Frog the whole thing! One stitch that looks out of place? Frog! Should have used a different cast on? You guessed it...

In general, I enjoy this process. I don't mind re-knitting, and I often go back to try something different even if it would be fine as I first knit it. And sometimes, I go back and re-knit it again the first way when my "improvement" flops. It's part of the experimenting, and it's how I build my knowledge of how different variations work in a piece. It's fun - in an obsessive kind of way - but it doesn't lead to a product. Usually, at the end of the day I have a freshly wound ball of yarn, an empty needle, and a sketch of what to try next.

So there's not a lot to show right now. But there will be soon. It's all simmering away in the design pot. It just hasn't gone from half-baked to well done yet. But it's getting closer.

I got tired of knitting maple leaves, so they have been supplanted by some handspun alpaca, which is beautiful. It's also not a very good communicator. It's having a hard time figuring out what it wants to be.

Again, I think we're getting closer. So, someday soon.

And maybe by then the pictures will be uploaded.

Right now? I need to go frog.