To frog or not to frog, that is the question

scentoflavender
It is a question knitters will often find asking themselves and the answer never seems easy. I have once again found myself in this position were I have already invested quite some time in a project, but am unsure whether to continue or not. So to frog or not to frog? That is the question..

Pattern: The Scent of Lavender
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multy

In general, there doesn’t seem to be anything especially wrong with this project. The yarn is fine, there don’t seem to be any too apparent mistakes in the pattern, the size is working out as well. So why would I consider frogging this? Mainly because it is hard for me to keep myself motivated to finish this project, and there are several reasons for this.

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First of all the pattern instructions. I am knitting these from a little Knitting to Go booklet, from which I have finished a pattern before. There are lots of lovely patterns in there that make my sock knitting heart beat a little faster. But as I also came to find with the previous pattern I made (Herringbone from Kiel), I am thoroughly annoyed with the instructions. In the case of the Herringbone socks the heel instructions were very unclear, I frogged the heel twice after ending up with huge holes in the gusset, before eventually knitting a heel from a different pattern. I don’t know if it’s the way the booklet has been translated but again I’m encountering frustrations regarding the directions. I’m sure that partially it’s my own fault, because I do dive into charts immediately without always reading the instructions carefully. But a lot of things in the instructions seem to be implicitly assumed and I generally prefer patterns that explicitly overstate things rather than assuming I just know everything. I’m sure because of the way it is written there are already a few unnecessary errors in my sock, which annoys me to no end.

And then there’s the problem of my yarn choice. I knew very well that this pattern would work best with a solid colour, but I thought I’d get away with the variegated yarn anyway. The colour is so pretty and it somehow feels as if the green would work nice for a leafy lace pattern (I’m such a sucker for leafy lace patterns). But here it is, the lace isn’t popping out as much as it should and in hindsight I should’ve gone for a solid colour.

So what to do? It’s not as if the sock is looking horrendous, I still love the way the pattern looks and the yarn is lovely, plus I’ve already invested quite some time in this (oh dear, sunk cost effect kicking in). But on the other hand, because of the reasons listed above, it is hard to stay motivated and finish this thing and what if I don’t like the end result? For now I don’t have an answer to my own question and I’m avoiding the sock whilst continuing on other projects, running the risk that I’ll forgot about it. What is a knitter to do..

FO friday: lakeside

lakeside
These knee socks have been a long time in the making (cast on was in april) but I have finished making the lakeside socks for my sister! Even though it was my second time knitting this pattern I still enjoyed making them. Still somehow I can’t manage to finish one of these completely without mistakes. But let’s just call that ‘personalised’ and ‘one of a kind’ (ahem).

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 As for the yarn, I was pleasantly surprised. I was looking for sock yarn that would not be itchy but could still resist the wear and tear socks usually get exposed to. I ended up buying Rico Design superba cotton stretchOf course I don’t know yet how the yarn will last in the long run, but at least it feels super soft and was easy to work with. Plus, it only took me around 55 grams to make one sock, and since I bought 200 grams I still have more than enough left to make another pair of socks.


Now that these are done I can get back to some selfish knitting!

In love with the skeinbow

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Today was a very happy day indeed, because when I got home I had a nice surprise awaiting me. As you may remember I made an entry (Breaking Cat) for the Mochimochiland photo series contest and I actually won second place (check out the other winners here and all the super creative entries here)! So the surprise awaiting me was my price which had already arrived all the way from the US. And what better price for a knitter than yarn?

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The prize consisted of two mini skeinbows by Happy Go Lucky Yarn (you can find their Etsy shop here). The first one consisted of the bright colours and well.. what can I say? Just look at it! So unbelievably beautiful, I am completely in love. The skeinbow consists of six mini skeins of fingering weight yarn consisting of 75% merino/25% nylon.

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The second skeinbow consists of light pastel colours. Again beautiful colours and the skeins themselves are so soft and squishy. And now comes the hard part, what magical rainbow creation am I going to knit with these? There’s so many options; cute Mochimochi creatures? Hexipuffs? Or maybe these amazing rainbow wanderer socks that I’ve been wanting to make for quite a while? Any suggestions are welcome!

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I am very grateful for this price so I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to both Mochimochiland for hosting such a fun contest and Happy Go Lucky yarn for making this amazing price available!

Now I’ll leave you with my favourite rainbow picture I ever made. The photo was taken almost exactly a year ago on Midsummer Eve (Sankt Hans) back when I was still living in Copenhagen. What first seemed to be doomed to end as a rainy evening turned into a beautiful night with first a double rainbow, then a great bonfire and a huge full moon. This must be evidence that rainbows have magical powers!

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