I’m making my first felted project. It’s a laptop sleeve for my MacBook Pro. Don’t know what felting is? You knit something out of wool. Then you throw it in the washing machine... on hot. I know, I know. Contrary to everything we’ve ever been told. It’s like putting metal in the microwave or browsing the web using Internet Explorer; there are some things you just don’t do. Testing it on my gauge swatch felt wrong. I paced in front of the washer fretting. So what happens? It shrinks and makes this nice, tight, cozy little fabric. Looks like felt. Thus the name.
The problem with felting, I’ve discovered, is that you never know how much it’s going to shrink until you do your gauge swatch. Once I had, I re-ran my yarn estimates and realized that I didn’t order enough yarn. I’m making it out of KnitPicks kettle-dyed wool of the andes. KnitPicks makes great stuff. They have some very nice yarns for very reasonable prices and the shipping is inexpensive too. Nothing pisses me off more than being asked to pay $10 to ship $5 worth of yarn parcel post.
...Actually, yes, there are many things that piss me off more than that: plague, famine, global warming, and grubby little post-it notes to name a few, but we’re getting off topic.
I’m talking about yarn.
The problem with KnitPicks is that this inexpensive shipping is slower than molasses. So I placed my order and promptly ran out of black worsted just past the half way mark. Right. So I just won’t knit until my yarn comes.
I made it two hours before my fingers started to itch. Literally itch. In a way you can’t scratch. Forgive me if I sound compulsive, but the other knitters out there get me. You can only make it for so long without wrapping your fingers around some yarn. Especially if you’re thinking about it. Especially if you’ve got a project sitting there on your desk staring at you half finished and wanting you to pick it up. I moved the project to my knitting bag. I moved my knitting bag to my sewing room. Under the table. I went back to the desk. I can hang out on Ravelry, I thought. That will help.
Oh sure. Hang out with other obsessive knitters. That will scratch that itch. Uh-huh.
As a friend was quick to point out, I could be working on The Sweater That Must Not Be Named. I could. This is true. But crochet? It’s not the same. Since I’ve learned to knit, it almost seems... well... crude.
By that afternoon I was stash diving looking for a scrap of something that could be made into anything. I came up half a ball of Rowan Cocoon - a very luscious mohair/merino chunky. Deep shade of blue that you can get lost in. Exquisite. Out came the books. There must be something I could do with this. I logged onto Ravelry and did some pattern searches. Something somewhere that I have the right needles and yarn length for. No time to go to the store. Itchy fingers.
Eventually I came up with a fingerless glove pattern. One of my frequent clients has a server room in an unheated warehouse. It’s like a meat locker in there in the winter. I’d been thinking about a pair of fingerless gloves to get me through long hours of server maintenance. And if I altered the pattern just a little, I just might have enough yarn. Just.
I cast on and breathed a sigh of relief. It was an easy pattern. I banged out the first glove yesterday, sweet as pie. And today, I got half way through the second glove and I... ran out of yarn. Just past the thumb gusset. Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.
I know where I can get more Rowan Cocoon. In just this color. The yarn store near my folks house. It’s the only place around here that has it. Which is perfect, because I’m going to Napa... in two and half weeks.
So now I have two unfinished projects. I can’t help them. They can’t help me. We can just sit here and stare at each other and wish.
I could weave in some ends. That would kill some time. There’s a new KnitPicks catalog on the mail stack. I could thumb through that. I could do the laundry or do some work or something.
Maybe the universe is conspiring to tell me to finish the damn crocheted sweater.
I’m going to go eat some chocolate.