Thursday, February 4, 2010

Hubby's Chunky Scarf: 8 Knitting Days

I forgot to mention yesterday that the ejector is right next to the washing machine.

The washing machine is fine, but the floor in front of it took a hit.

I would prefer to avoid doing laundry until the clean-up is complete. However, this will rapidly become a problem since I didn't do laundry over the weekend and we will soon run out of clean clothes.

Why, yes, I will avoid doing laundry at the drop of a hat. Don't we all?

Ravelympics 2010
In a moment of insanity I signed up for the Ravelympics again. You know, because I did so well back in 2008.

The Ravelympics are a take off of the Yarn Harlot's original Knitting Olympics.

The idea of both is to choose a knitting or crochet challenge for yourself to start and complete between the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

The Ravelympics are hosted through Ravelry. You join a team based on one of your interest groups so you can have moral support.

This time I was smart. I only signed up for WIP-Dancing with Stella for Team TARDIS. For this event the goal is to finish a work-in-progress (WIP) that you haven't touched since at least January 12.

Last time I signed up for two events and was overmatched. But I figure all I have to do is knit the front and sew it all together. That should be totally doable in the 17 days allowed.

However, it also means I only have eight days in which to finish Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf.

25 Grams
I have been practicing strict project monogamy. Well, except for the Green Step Sock, which is my travel project so it doesn't count. (Started the toe shaping on the first sock, thanks for asking.)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish the scarf before my eight days have expired since I'm rapidly running out of yarn.

I weighed the balls this morning. There are 25 grams total of blue and 29 grams total of green.

Considering the amounts are being split between both halves since I'm knitting them consecutively I'm expecting to blast right through them.

Not Matchy-Matchy
Despite my hard work in catching the second half up, the two halves don't actually match.

This is not apparent to the naked eye.

I thought I had worked the first half in repeat increments of one, half, and one-and-a-half to keep everything square. Turns out I didn't.

I knew I had ended the first half on a green section after row 12 (a full repeat). When the second half was reaching the top of the final green section I was falling short of a full repeat. But both halves had 11 rows of green. I couldn't understand it.

I thought perhaps I hadn't advanced my row counter properly, so I went ahead and cabled, then put both halves on one long cable needle.

The second half was short. Just a wee bit. I tried to stretch it out, but it sprang back.

So I started counting rows, since I'm neurotic, and discovered my mistake went all the way back to the very first blue section.

Yes, I did briefly consider ripping it all out, but I came to my senses in time.

I put the scarf in time-out for a night and spent some quality time with the Angora Bed Sock of Power and Fortune.

Rolling With It
The scarf has won. I'm embracing its unintended randomness. The two halves are cabling at the same time, but not on the same row (one is 5 the other 11), so I've resorted to two different row counters to track them individually.

I told you I'm neurotic.

I was afraid that if I just skip ahead to the row 11 cable the pattern would go all wonky. Separate tracking was the lesser of two evils.

One benefit of all this is that since I've been working on the scarf so diligently Hubby is free to engage in other pursuits that don't involve yarn-napping.

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