Thursday, June 6, 2013

Project not doing it for you?


Last year, I knit three different projects from a skein of hand spun yarn before settling on the Helix Scarf.  One of the projects I liked knitting, but it just didn't match the yarn, was the Birch Leaf Shawl.  I would show up at my weekly knitting group unraveling one project, while knitting another before settling on the Helix Scarf.  We joked about how much knitting I got out of that one skein of yarn!  It bothered my mom to see one beautiful project unraveled and knit into something else!

July of 2012 I cast on another Birch Leaf Shawl with lace weight yarn; it was such a quick knit with the hand spun, and I really loved the look of the shawl!  It was one of the three UFO projects I started 2013 with.

So?  What's the hold up?  I am just not enjoying the knit.  At one point I was ready to frog it. 

I was knitting them on KnitPicks Sunstruck interchangeables, I tried KnitPicks Harmony, and wasn't happy with them either.  I wanted to finish the shawl, but it was a huge black cloud over my head.  TI struggled with getting the stitches off the cable and onto the needles, and then the stitches would fall off the needles.  Dropping stitches while knitting a lace pattern, well, in a word?  It SUCKS!

I have started and finished several other projects, while growling at the Birch Leaf Shawl.  I was really beginning to HATE that shawl.  It would migrate to the bottom of my knitting bag, then I'd see it and feel guilty for not working on it.  I'd knit on it, fight with the needles, the yarn, the cable, hate the project and contemplate frogging it.

When casting on Lucy with my Knitter's Pride Trendz Acrylic tips, it got me thinking.  I liked the grip of the acrylic tips and wondered how they would be for the dreaded Birch Leaf Shawl.  Only problem was I didn't have the size I needed.  I went to our LYS and they didn't sell acrylic tips.  So, an order from KnitPicks was in order. 



The tips arrived this week and I think I have a match.  There is just enough "stick" that the stitches don't slip off the needles!  I only wish that Knitter's Pride sold the acrylic tips individually. 

So, when a project isn't doing it for you, try different needles!

2 comments:

Gracey is not my name.... said...

I don't have any interchangables, but I definitely have preface with needles...

Gracey is not my name.... said...

I just read back through the posts I missed...I'm sorry about the job...we have to be told 10 days before the end of school what our position is for next year..then the posting lists come out and you can post out for another position...

The bracelet is gorgeous!!!!!

And we have 8 1/2 days left...