I finished Mondo when we were at the cottage:



Despite changing the pattern from trapeze style to shaped, it still came out a bit bulky for my frame, at least when worn as a tank top. It does look cute as a vest, over a white blouse, which is how I'll wear it this fall, with khakis.

This is my third knit tank top in as many years, and no offense to any designers, but I've decided that bulky knit tanks are not for me. I think it's the boobs-as-plumb issue. But it will make a cute vest, as has my pink ribbie shell from last year.

Pattern: Mondo, from Chicknits.

Yarn: Gedifra, Aragona.

Size: Small.

Adaptations: I shaped it instead of trapezing it.

Comments: Bonne Marie rocks. Again. It was a quick knit, minus this writer's asstardedness, which required the ripping out and reknitting of a nearly finished front.

Cast-ons Who Can't Commit and The Women Who Loathe Them
I had planned on starting up Sahara right after Mondo. But didn't. In fact, my knit bag was still packed with Sahara fixings from the previous trip north.

After I finished Mondo I didn't knit for several days. Instead, I Sudokued. Every day. Until my eyes bled. I realize I'm a little late to this puzzle party. In retrospect, I suspect it wasn't so much love as it was a nice little excuse of a distraction from the inevitability of facing this:



Yeah. I did it. Courtesy of the tutorial from the fine people at Knitting at Knoon. ::Best Knooner ever.::

::Okay. Second best. Love ya honey!::

Wendy, the designer of the pattern, had offered me another provisional cast-on option, after reading about my cast-on issues in an earlier blog post. Her idea was intriguing and sounded easy enough. It involved casting on to an extra circ needle and leaving it attached.

Ease and intrigue notwithstanding, after a couple knuckle grinding attempts at this method, I now know that one can not master a new skill on admiration alone.

Apparently I possess Provisional Intelligence. ::Ya think?:: So frightened I was by my own stupidity, with crochet hook and needle in hand, I revisited Knitting at Knoon and quickly found myself gellin' like a felon.

I've never knit a pattern like this before, where you start the back and the front from the initial cast-on edge. Brilliant. Really. I just really need to pay attention, because things are kind of upside down from what I'm used to. For instance, what I was supposing to be the right front was actually the left front, but because I wasn't really sure what I was looking at, I made the right front shapings as the left front shapings, and visa versa.

And then there are these M1R and M1L thingies, which, much to my surprise and disappointment, have little to do with the left front or right front and actually have their own purpose of directionality, independent of what side you're working.

::Thus is the life of The Provisionally Intelligent. We laugh. We cry. We wish to pluck out our eyeballs with oyster forks, but instead stop to ponder "Why do oysters need forks? Do oysters have utensil drawers? Their shells are so tiny. Where do they keep them? Should I have the red Jujube or the yellow.?::

Long story short: I had to rip back a few six inches of both sides, and start the front anew.



On the do-over, instead of working both front straps at the same time, I'm only doing one at a time. This way I can really focus on the fucking up. I mean, what's the pleasure of being an idiot if you're all random and shit?

Anyway. So far, so good. Knock on Oyster Shell.

Time Flies Like an Arrow. Fruit Flies Like a Banana.
I seem to have very little time to myself these days, thus the dearth in communication, both bloggic and private.

Not that I don't have things to say. I do.

I just wish I had more time to say them. But I don't.

I think my brain needs a gin and colonic.

Labels: Bag-O-Hair, Knit Done, Knit In Progress, The Casting On Couch