Bad knitting, BAD!

My knitting is in a time out. 

It's a shame, really, because I was super excited about working on the Ripple Effect shawl, designed by my friend Rachel at Unraveled Designs.  I loved it so much when I saw it, that I immediately went out and bought yarn, despite the fact that I was supposed to be finishing my second Raphaelite sock. 

I had grand knitting plans, because my mom was having surgery and I was going to be staying at the hospital with her, and figured I'd have plenty of knitting time.  It was not meant to be.  Between getting her water, helping her adjust things, and talking to nurses, I couldn't fully concentrate on it, which is BAD NEWS.  I should have just stopped and played on my iPad, or read a book.  But no, Sam's voice was in my head scolding me about my lack of knitting, so I kept plugging away...and then totally mucked it up.  So much, I have to pull it all out and restart.

I was ticked.  So its sitting in a knitting bag by my couch and I refuse to even look at it.  Any of it.

We're supposed to have tea and knitting this coming Saturday, and I might actually bring a cross-stitch or something instead, I'm still so annoyed.  I mean...have you seen this adorable Halloween sampler?  Super adorbs!  [I am in denial].

Adventures in Dyeing, Take 2: The Fail (?)

Last weekend I played around with food color/Kool Aid dyeing again.  I actually tried three different things, but I'll discuss the other two later since they turned out far better than the first experiment did.

I decided to trying over-dyeing a skein of yarn again, since I had a flavor I was pretty sure I wouldn't use for another project.  The skein in question was Knit Picks Stroll in the colorway Cartoons, which is a very bright rainbow colorway.  (I used some of it for my knitted monster because I thought it was a very kid-friendly colorway, but beyond that it was a little TOO bright for my tastes).

The original rainbow craziness.

I decided to try to use actual Kool Aid this time, and to over-dye the skein green.  I used the immersion dyeing method (basically, heat up the color in water and vinegar, blopped the skein in until the dyebath cleared, done).

My first attempt was not super successful:

Barely colored at all! Boo.

So, I prepared a new dye bath using McCormick food coloring (green with a dash of blue), and re-did the skein again using the same method.  It came out a little darker, but not nearly as dark as I wanted.

The second attempt turned out little better.

Strangely, I don't totally hate it.  However, I'm thinking I should have over-dyed it blue rather than green; the red areas would have turned purple, the yellows to greens, etc.  Oh well, you live you learn, right?  I may play with it some more, but we shall see.

Re-do!

Ugh.  Nothing infuriates me more than when I make a mistake and have to backtrack.  It will come as no surprise after that opening sentence that, of course, on Row 5 of Chart A of the Traveling Woman shawl, I managed to goof up.  I thought I figured it out my issue, but when I went back across the wrong side (Row 6) things were NOT RIGHT.  So I had to frog all the way back to my lifeline (the START of Chart A), and spent my weekend knitting time re-doing something I'd already done once.  Grumble.  I'm actually waiting to start Row 5 as we speak.

I would have gotten farther along but my DVD player died.  That likely sounds strange (and is a poor excuse!) but I really like having a movie I've seen before playing in the background when I knit (it can't be new, because then I don't pay attention).  America's Next Top Model reruns are equally good, but alas, the weekend seemed to be devoid of ANTM episodes. I considered listening to a podcast, but really, I was dreading going through Row 5 again.  Hopefully I can suck it up and get something done this week.

Anyone else have any habits that help them getting knitting done?  Do you like to have noise in the background or complete silence?  Is there a certain spot you like to sit?  Please share! :)

EXTREME SAD FACE

Y'all.  I tried to get my sock heels done, I really did.  I turned the heel of the first sock, no problems.  Picked up the gusset stitches on one side...and realized (to my great horror) that there was no way for me to get to the second sock heel.

I have a hunch (though I can't find any confirmation anywhere) that my problem is due to the fact that I did my heel flap on the back needle.  There aren't any tutorials anywhere I can find that explicitly state which needle you're *supposed* to do the heel flap on (and I wasn't sure it mattered), but thinking about it, if the flaps were on the front needle, I would be able to move on to the second sock heel, easy peasy (if I'm thinking about it right).

Sadly, I didn't figure all this out until after I'd removed the socks from the circular, picked up gusset stitches on both socks, and knit a round or two (thinking I could just do the turns on DPNs and then put them back).  It was only then I realized another horrible problem: my DPNs are wood, and I knit MUCH tighter on them.  BOO HISS.

So, my plan is to rip back, all the way to the cuff and start the flaps and everything over again.  I'm still not sure how to address the problem I have of following the heel/gusset instructions in Sensational Knitted Socks, where she has you rearrange stitches (can't really do that on the circular, especially for Sock 1), but maybe it will come to me.  Wish me luck!