Something to do

When Bridget was going in to have her tonsils out, I decided that I needed a real knitting project. We headed to the closest yarn shop I could find which was only about 20 min away in a cute little town called Funkstown. I should add that we had visited Borders earlier and found a great book by Susan Anderson - called Itty Bitty Hats.

Once in side this quaint little shop, we were quickly overwhelmed with all the beautiful yarns and oh, the colors. When we told the shop owner that this would be our very first project and showed her the picture, she quickly scooted us into the side of the shop with the less expensive yarns. Well, having become a fabric snob, I quickly became a yarn snob as well. While the yarn was pretty, it wasn't near as pretty as the yarn in the other side of the shop which Bridget and I quickly returned to. Lets face it, it was going to be a small hat, how much yarn could I really need? We finally settled on a very pretty yarn with bamboo in it. It is very soft and the color is incredible. I also picked up some red as the color was incredible and I won't dare share how much I paid for it. The nice shop owner picked out the right needles and away we went.


I could probably start a new post at this point, but why when they are totally related. While Bridget was in surgery, I spent my time reading and casting on. Because her surgery was so quick, this was about all I got done. I knew I would have time at home over the Thanksgiving holiday as Bridget was down for the count and who would want to shop without their only girlie girl along. We spent a lot of time curled up in my bed knitting and knitting and knitting. I kept trying to figure out how to hold the yarn in my left hand so that I wasn't throwing the yarn. It seemed like such a useless waste of time. I quickly learned that I am a right handed yarn holder and no matter how hard I try, I cannot hold it in my left hand. I think the holes are because I kept trying to switch and probably kept messing things up.


I had grand intentions for this hat. I was going to make little snowflakes and cover up the holes. I could stop here, but must continue. That is just the way I am, I must complete a project. Unfinished projects drive me crazy and make me feel like a failure. When it got towards the end of of my hat, I was supposed to knit on DPNs (double pointed needles), well, after talking with my knitting hero JenI quickly understood how to use spacers instead of the DPNs. I totally got the concept. What I didn't get was that I was supposed to knit each round on all the "needles". What I ended up with was a tight little mess that I could not get off my needles. No matter how hard I tried, those needles would not come out. At this point, I could have cut the cord on the needles and that would have slid out, but cut the cord on my needles, how could I ever do that? Then I would HAVE to go to the quaint little yarn shop and get new needles and I wasn't going to be able to get there for a few days. I couldn't dare be left without needles for an extened period of time knowing that I had messed this hat up and knowing that I would have to immediately start another one and figure out where I had gone wrong.

You ask, what did I do? I did what only I do when I fail at a project, I took my handy dandy scissors to it. I did it carefully at first thinking I could save this project.


While I did save it for the sake of a finished project, it is in no way fit to be worn by the child intended.