Distraction

I don't know how better a way to describe the last week that with "distraction". It seems that everything I picked up to work on had some silly little issue with it that required me to look up something. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except the 50+ hours weeks are starting to take their toll on my ability to concentrate once I get home. (Theresa how do you do it?) I just want to sit and work stockinette, round and round. Which is really a perfect dilemma to have right now because I happen to have a few projects that require a bazillion stockinette stitches.

But, then sometimes in the middle of all that stockinette, you have to change colors. Now, I think the last time I actually had a round project that required a color change was about a year ago when I was working on Starry Night Kyoto. I believe we were on our last retreat actually when that first came up. The only reference book I had at the time was the Stitch 'n Bitch book and while it is a great book to get you started, it obviously can't tell you how to do EVERYTHING. So, I just made something up and so what if I didn't have a perfect jogless jog.

The problem is that now I do care. I am trying to learn good technique (as much as possible) and I am trying not to take the easy road when I come to something. After the recent fair isle class that I took at the Grove, I now know that there are correct ways to change colors, strand, carry, etc. And while my Fakey McFakerton techniques get the job done, they obviously have their telltale errors as well. So instead of just starting up my new color, I thought I would take the time to look up how to minimize the effect of the color change. I happen to come across this post, that talks about this post, which was very timely. But to tell you the truth, aparently my brain wasn't in a good *place* to take it all in. I tried doing what I think they said to do, but it looked gross. I even tried the google search suggested and that brought up more questions than answers. But in the end, I got this:

It's not perfect, but then even in Nona's discussion, she mentions that you can still see that *something* is happening, but it's not as bad as the jog. So, what did I end up doing? Practically nothing. I added a new color as described in Vogue Knitting, where you put the old color in and then the new, knit both in that stitch, then you knit with both ends of the new at the same time for a few stitches. That's it! I think the fact that there is a wee bit of the old color in the first stitch of the new color helps smoosh together the jog line. The only thing I feel I need to do now is loosen up that pulled in stich a bit. Hmmm. I think that still makes me Fakey McFakerton, but at least I did the research, tried things, and I'm satisfied with the results.

The other problem I encountered this week was with my Green Gable. It is coming along nicely, it knits up beautifully, the color (Silver Plum) is great, the new KnitPicks needles are mostly great, but my hands hurt.

It's funny, living in Southern California I knit with a lot of knitters who knit alot of cotton. I'm pretty sure there has not a knitting group get together without the hand cramping qualities of cotton coming up. The thing is, I had NEVER had that problem before. My hands only cramped after too much knitting in general, but I could never associate it with the particular fiber I was working with. Not this time. Cotton Fleece makes my hands hurt. I love this yarn, but ouch! I can only work for a few rounds before my hands start bugging me, which isn't the greatest thing to find out when you are in the middle of those fun raglan increases. Oh well, this project will just have to take a little long than I thought is was going to take.