I’ve been silent on the knitblog front for awhile for one big reason: I am mad at knitting.

I broke up with knitting this weekend. It’s only a temporary split, really, honest, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a few days before I pick up the needles again.

And really, I’m not surprised. I was having a stellar time with knitting, we were getting along so well and things were turning out great. We worked together and we got great results. But this weekend, knitting let me down hardcore.

After frogging the same ball of yarn 6 times over the course of the weekend, I decided I needed to put that yarn away and focus on another project so I didn’t destroy they beautiful yarn I spent my hard earned money on. So I focused on dyeing the two bare yarns I had, but that didn’t go so well either.

I had some sock yarn from Knit Picks and some crappy Lion Brand wool lying around that I wanted to dye to (maybe) make a Clapotis with. Neither one of them turned out how I wanted, and I was really disappointed. I will still probably make the Clapotis with the Lion Brand wool, simply because it’s so bright that I won’t be able to knit the roughly 350 yards into anything else that’s remotely fashionable. I think part of the problem with this particular dye batch was the yarn: it wasn’t a good fiber to get excellent results with, but it was a good fiber to experiment with.

My bare sock yarn was also disappointing, but I think that was my own fault and not the yarn’s. I had visions of this gorgeous purple/pink/red combo, with white splotches in between that helped spread out the colors, but I didn’t execute it properly.

I did the hot pour method, which was ideal to achieve the white spots I was hoping for, but I stupidly poured the red and pink next to each other, rather than on opposite sides of the pot, causing the red and pink to bleed together and be almost indistinguishable.

There’s too much white between the purple and the redpink, but not enough between the red and pink, so it looks a little awkward and unbalanced. The colors, individually, turned out wonderfully. I will definitely be using this color set together again in the future, but I’ll definitely pour the purple in the middle in cases of hot pour, or use a different dye method. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to knit with 462 yards of this particular colorway, maybe a not-too-fancy lace scarf, or some Bellatrix socks? Or maybe I’ll offer it up for trade on Ravelry? Who knows.

On the actual knitting front, I failed miserably. I tried, and failed, to knit several things this weekend. I frogged 3 Lace Ribbon Scarves, 2 Haruha scarves, 1 Anastasia sock, 1 finished Elfine sock, and 2 sleeves for my Hexacomb Cardigan. I know I knit up a few more things and frogged them all as well, but they seem to be escaping me at the moment, which is probably a good thing.

So, as a result, knitting and I are on a trial separation. I’m not really sure how long it will last because I’ve been coveting a nice lace scarf, Rory Gilmore style, circa season 5:

While I’ll probably never knit something identical to that (upon closer inspection, it may actually be crocheted. I can’t tell, terrible vision.), I’m dying for something similar. I think that’s why I was attracted to the Lace Ribbon Scarf and the Haruha scarf, but I don’t think I have the right yarn for the projects. I’m considering buying some lace weight yarn and undertaking a more intense lace project, but we’ll see.

I think the root of my frustration this weekend was not being able to knit what I truly wanted. I couldn’t find patterns I liked, and I’m too easily upset by mistakes to write my own lace pattern, so here I sit, in a pickle.

I’ll be casting on a nice and simple black project today. I just have to find a pattern I like before I leave the office today…

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