True confessions

The time has come. I can hide my shame no longer.
I have to show you my knitting.
I’m sure this is supposed to be a proud moment. But the fact is, this year has been pretty lousy for knitting. We shall blame the demands on my time made by setting up and running this lovely store, shall we? Please collude in my pretence that that is an adequate excuse. I really don’t know what else can protect me.

Let me start with the one thing I’ve done in 2006 that I’m actually proud of. We’ll pass lightly over the fact that it was started, multiply frogged, and due for completion in July 2005. This is the third sweater I’ve made for my beloved Armin, and I think he looks rather fine in it. It’s made in Linen Drape, and I call it Havana. (It’s the linen thing.)

So that was good. But then things started to go downhill. I had this pile of luscious red Siena that I was so terribly excited about; I was going to make a cute little wrap top.

I can’t even talk about it. It was… close. But fatally flawed. And in the end I just couldn’t bring myself to do any more tweaking; it had to die. It is now, once more, a pretty pile of red temptation, and maybe one day I’ll be strong enough to do something with it. (I already have some ideas. They involve beading. It’s promising.)
So while fighting slowly with that, I tackled something I thought would be a quick, fail-safe project. A felted bag. Admittedly, I’ve never tried felting before, so that should have rung a little warning bell somewhere on the “fail-safe” side… but look! It was going so well!

…but somehow, despite my careful swatching and meticulous calculations, it shrank all wrong and… well. It just won’t do. Too long, too shallow, too strappy.

I also tried my hand at DPNs with this little number, for the mother of a friend. Knitted breasts? Such a cute idea! But it took me forever to get around to buying the stuffing, so even this tiny little thing took months to complete. I’m not kidding. Still, at least this one turned out that way it was supposed to.

That’s about all I’ve done this year. Pretty shocking, isn’t it? I seem to veer between fantastic success and fantastic failure. A few good, steady, reliable projects would be just the ticket right now. Maybe a superchunky coat will help to set me straight – hey, anything where I can finish the sleeve in a few hours is looking really good to me!

Stay tuned. I’m sure I can manage to screw this up too.