knitting – i’m back

I started knitting again this weekend and it took the form of Spring Forward socks from Knitty Summer 2008.  I’m using Koigu KPPPM in a beautiful colorway that doesn’t photograph well without really great lighting.  After spending money on two sets of dpns from Knit Picks, I’ve finally realized that I hate knitting with dpns.  I know others love it, but for me they’re fiddly.  Having to knit around the other needles sticking out, trying to make sure I don’t lose my stitches on the non-working needles while I knit off the working needle.  Ugh – too hard.  Too fiddly.  I said that already but it’s the most apt way to describe it.  It could be simply because I learned to knit socks on a circulars and it’s what I know.  The only reason I tried to knit on dpns was because of Spring Forward socks.  Here’s what happened (and maybe the reason I got burned out on knitting in general):

I started knitting Spring Forward with another colorway of Koigu back in San Diego with my circulars.  Then I knit the heel and when it came time to start on the foot, I couldn’t figure out where I was in the chart – which stitch on which line?  Ugh.  So I ripped it out.

Then I promised my aunt that I’d make her a pair of socks.  I tried to knit a third pair of Uptown Boot Socks but I just couldn’t do it – too boring.  I love those socks, but two pair knit so closely together made knitting a third pair…boring.  So I set off to find another pattern to knit once I got home because I had the perfect colorway of Fleece Artist Merino Sock for her.

I started knitting Froot Loops from Knitty Spring 2008 with my new Knit Picks Harmony dpns.  Two problems:  the fiddly-ness of the dpns and the fact that as I kept knitting, the tube of the ankle seemed really small.  Froot Loops is very stretchy, but even still, I just couldn’t keep knitting something that might not fit after all that work.  So I set them aside.  (Also, within the first day of using the Harmony dpns, I broke a needle.  So then I bought the nickel-plated set because I still wanted to knit the Spring Forward socks and needed dpns because I couldn’t figure out how to mod the pattern for circulars).

So far in this very boring story, I’ve started three different pair of socks (a couple of those a couple times to get gauge) and none of them have worked. Very frustrating.  A lot of knitting with no finished result.

Like I said, now I’m working on Spring Forward again, and it’s going well.  I’m starting the second ankle today.  I am doing the ankles on circulars, switching to dpns for the heel, then switching back to circulars for the foot/toe.  I’m sure there’s an easier way to do this, but this way is working for me and I’m not going to over-think it.

Here’s what I have so far (it’s not blocked):

So I don’t know why exactly I had the knitting ennui.  I’ve been knitting for almost 2 and 1/2 years and in that time, I’ve not stopped knitting for longer than a couple days.  But between the traveling, the relationship issues, the direct knitting problems themselves, and just everything else that’s been on my mind, I suppose it could be a mixture of all those things.  But now I’m feeling more home and more settled, so – I’m back, in more ways than one.