Backwarding better

I thought I had nailed it but...

Since I am new to reverse knitting and I started the scarf from my previous post before I was proficient--sounds better than "didn't practice enough"--I ran into some technical difficulties. Well, perhaps aesthetic difficulties would be more apropos. My tension changed dramatically **tension walks on stage and shouts, "I have changed!"** so I frogged the scarf and started over. I considered this a sign of (pick one) my maturing character or sheer lunacy. Persnickety perfectionism is SO not me and at first I balked at the idea of frogging and tried purposely knitting loosely, which did not work. Then I changed to larger needles which worked but didn't improve the beginning crappethy part of the fabric. So *sigh* I started over and have become a saner woman in the process. (Snicker and I will find you.)

See the differences in stitch quality , not to mention size, of my scarves done with the same yarn on the same needles but with much better control of the working yarn.

It is not perfect but I think it's much better looking and *gasp* it is the correct gauge. There are occasional wonky stitches but usually these result from putting my work down mid-row or not paying attention because this pattern it not something to zone out on. Nope, it's definitely not a knit-while-steering-with-one-knee WIP but I do enjoy the entrelac technique and I'm having a good time with it and that's what matters, eh?

I'm backwards

After much aggravation and cussin' I have mastered (mistressed?) reverse/backward knitting. I am really more of a reverse purler as I haven't yet done a pattern requiring the reverse knitting. The actual making of a single stitch is not a big deal in itself. It's speeding up and developing a technique that insures even stitches and tension that nearly caused me to snatch myself bald-headed. I have nailed it and I am ridiculously proud of myself. I am now the Backward-Knitting Clap-Queen Bag-Hag and Short-Row Junkie. Feel free to kowtow .

Sue, yarn-junkie enabler extraodinaire, at Little Knits told me about this scarf pattern in Gedifra Highlights 042

She made me get the book and yarn Gedifra Fashion Trend Stripe in colorway 16 which just happens to be soft and beautiful and which I had never seen before but she assured me I would love and I do and I hate when she's right.

I have two on the needles right now.

The first is actually my second start on the pattern. I knit four rows in some scrap yarn to see if the pattern needed any tweaking, frogged it and started the two you see. The first is made with Wool Ease on size seven needles and the second is made with the Gedifra mentioned above on size tens. You can see more clearly in the second picture that I have three sets of twelve live stitches on one needle. The pattern calls for the live stitches to be placed on a stitch holder but I find they can be left on the needle even if I turn the work. When the fabric got longer and too cumbersome to turn I still left the live stitches on the needle and used a DPN to knit the stitches currently in use. I'm no good at describing things and I'm sure that last bit made no sense so just skip it. Of course, reverse knitting makes the whole pattern much simpler and faster.

Now, a month ago, if I had read that sentence written by someone else I would have scoffed. I am, after all, fifty-two years old and I have been knitting a long time and after a token attempt I thought the technique was beyond me--the whole new-dog-new-trick thing, ya know. But I was wrong--and there's three words I don't say/write/type often. I practiced, cussed, practiced, cussed, and finally something clicked in the brain to hands transmission and I was backwarding up a storm. I'm not bragging, it was really hard for me to learn, but I am so proud of me.

I may be growing a fennel bush

I received a package from the illustrious Ms. S. Pal. Behold.

There were wonderful new-to-me-yarns: A skein each of Rowan Big Wool, Rowanspun, Wool Cotton, and the magnificent, heard-about-it-but-WOW! Kidsilk Haze. (Pardon me while I put on my dribble bib.) I started swatches of each immediately, except the Kidsilk Haze. There should be a warning on its wrapper, "Froggeth ye not for, yea, verily, I ain't gonna do it." I am petting it so much it will soon be be unknittable if I don't stop.

I also got a poem, Widecombe Fair, a kit to make a star cushion (?)--I'm not sure what it is exactly because I don't want to open it yet. I'm sure to lose the bits and pieces. There was also an elegant card with elephants on it. Miz Pal included a stick of rock candy, which I am not going to eat but keep on my desk shelf as a remembrance so I can get the warm fuzzies when I see it, and some beautiful ruby colored English Rose soap--smells heavenly but tastes terrible (and how would one know if one did not try it?). And I got a sweet little tin of comfit. Do you know what comfit are? They are confections made of a small piece of fruit, a seed, or a nut coated in sugar. (One had to look it up. One was not schooled in comfitture.) When I saw it I stripped it of its plastic wrap, opened it, saw some pink Tic Tac looking things and popped one in my mouth. Hmmmm. It was naive little tidbit but amusingly presumptious with a nicely focused hint of cinnamon. Quite nice. However, it did have a very small piece of wood at it's core and I spat this out. (Translation: I went, "Blaaaah!" over the trash can.) I had another. Same small bit of wood. I picked up my tin and read "Cinnamon Comfit", ingredients: sugar, starch, fennel seed, cinnamon oil, color #120. I didn't know what a comfit was so I thought perhaps it was not meant to taken orally and grabbed the Webster's to look it up. Turned out that the bit of wood was the fennel seed, duh, which was what made the candy a comfit and not a Tic Tac. I have had several since and I have decided I like them. I chewed a few of the fennel seeds and some I swallowed whole--not really up on my Comfit Etiquette. Someone must let me know the proper procedure. (I did discover, however, that I can not spit them with any degree of accuracy.)

I like trying new things but I was a I-never-had-it-and-I-know-I-won't-like-it person for a long time; afraid to try anything new. No more. I enjoy new taste experiences and look forward to more--Ms. Pal has been asking about chocolate and tea preferences. Can't wait to taste them.

But I still don't like the soap.