Monday, June 19, 2006

No Picking

Seems about time for another blog post. Maybe an update on my KWC project? Here it is: It’s longer now.

There’s not much else to saw about a rectangular shawl that just continues in the same stitch pattern throughout. You don’t need to see another picture just to prove that it’s grown, right?

I mentioned in my previous post about this project that my progress has been slow. The reason is that I am pretty much incapable of knitting continental style ("picking") when it comes to anything beyond basic knit and purl stitches. I converted to continental knitting about 18 months ago and have dramatically increased my knitting speed. But I can tell you, it wasn’t an easy conversion for me! My left hand might as well have been caught in a thrasher for all the use it is to me. I can open doors with it, but that seems to be pushing it to its limit. My two hands look like mirror images of one another, but that’s deceptive. They are like identical twins, one of whom emerged from the birth canal unscathed and the other of whom got stuck halfway through and was the victim of a doctor whose grasp was a bit too tight on the forceps! My poor little left hand. Pretty. Kind-hearted. Gentle. And dumb as a post.

And so I slowly push forward the old-fashioned way – throwing the yarn with my smart hand until my elbow aches – with that KWC July 9th deadline always in mind. I looked at the shawl this morning and thought it looked close to three feet long already. But alas, my mind was playing an evil trick on me. I got out the measuring tape and the damn thing is only 23 inches long. How could I think that 23 inches looked to be close to 3 feet? Perhaps my left hand is not the only victim of the tight forceps?

Sigh. I better get back to knitting!

3 comments:

aija said...

Knit on! :)

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHA! the idiot hand!! that's too funny!

i really should try continental one of these days. i can do it when i do stranding (a rare occurrance), but otherwise, i usually resort to my usual "throwing" style. i already knit fast, but sometimes my elbow hurts too when i knit a lot.it would be nice to be able to switch . .

barbp said...

I am a continental knitter. I watch the "throwing" style and think, no way can I do that! I'm sure you're left hand will come around though, as I'm a firm believer that if I can do it, you can do it.

Happy Knitting