There's no such thing as a free launch

We launch many things in our lives.  Most of us don't have boats or ships, but we do send children off to start independent lives.  One can launch a project at work.  Today, I'm launching the finished pieces of a sweater.  I've been voted off sleeve island.

The fully-fashioned neckline motif  designed by Melissa Leapman means I don't have to go back, pick up stitches, and knit a neckband.  However, the pattern says to knit the neck edging "until it meets in back slightly stretched".

No, there are no disasters here.  I haven't bound off the edges yet.  I'll join the shoulder seams, then have all the data I need to figure out if I need to knit a few or rip a few.  One variable is replaced by another.  There is no free launch.   I'm okay with this, since I thought the whole thing through as I was slogging through the knitwork.  For once.

I DID put my increases in one stitch, so that the selvedge stitch would be easier to seam.  What I DIDN'T do is make a garter stitch selvedge.  I followed the pattern, thinking how clever I was that I wouldn't have to seam in all the increases.  The edges roll.  It's stockinette.  I KNEW that.  The bars are hard to find with my glasses.  I squint without my glasses.   This is how the whole project looks to me right now:

And this is shoulder seaming hell.
The flip side to having lots of options (keep the sleeves live to decide on length, keep the neckbands live, ditto) is having lots of tangled miniskeins.  LOTS.  My dayjob is filled with the spaghetti of cords and loops and tangles and wires.  Now my knitting life echos this.   There was much profanity screamed at the top of my mind's lungs last night.   

So when knitting starts to feel like this, I think of other things.  How about a nice fall garden? 

This the Clematis ternifolia in bloom.   It is called the popcorn plant in the Etherknitter household.  One day there are hundreds of buds.  The next day, there are hundreds of flowers that have popped up with the speed and appearance of partially popped corn. 

I have a spinning question that is getting more relevant as the weather cools.  What do other spinners wear while spinning?  I find that my pants are adhering predrafted roving, especially the silk.  I have spiderwebs of roving covering my right thigh every time I get up from spinning.  I roll them between my fingers, and create roving bunnies.  To my mind, this is a waste of good roving.  (Yes, I know, packrat to the core.)  These wheel whiffs float around the floor, and make me sneeze.  Wrapping the roving around my drafting wrist doesn't work.  Am I the only one?

Shoulder seams, decluttering, and careful gardening are planned for this week.  Our area of the country has three confirmed deaths from eastern equine encephalitis, so I will wear my mesh bug shirt, long pants, and DEET.

Comments

[Cassie]

Some people have told me that they use a cloth or cotton dishtowel on their lap/leg to keep the fiber fuzzies off their clothes. I've learned not to wear black while spinning, because everything shows on that.

[Carole]

The EEE thing around here is scary, isn't it? I can't help with the spinning question since I don't spin. But I will be interested to hear what people say. Just in case I might spin someday.

[Cheryl]

I get those little bits of roving stuck to me too and I can't bear to throw them away. I have a little basket full of little wisps and roving bunnies that I'm saving "just in case". Every now and then a strong breeze comes along and blows them all over the living room.

[Lee Ann]

I'm not even using the wheel yet and I get roving webs from the spindle. I don't save them, though.

I wear black a lot, and this is a wee bit like having a bizarrely coloured cat, I must say...

[margene]

When the knitting gets rough...
Your garden would sooth any knit tortured soul. Love the popcorn plant!

[Judy]

I love that clematis. I once planted it, apparently inthe wrong spot.
Spinning clothes?? Never fleece, very very bad, as is any jersey or knitted material in black. I have some sweats that everything sticks to and must avoid them. Aprons are handy, but I usually don't do that at home and almost always do it when I'm demonstrating.

[Juno]

I wear my jammies and accept the fiber on me as the price of ransom. Plus it isn't dissimilar to what the cat leaves on me everyday anyway.

Avoid the bugs, please. No eastern equine encephalitis for you....

[Colleen]

Oh dear. Those seaming pictures look complicated indeed.

[Teresa C]

I sometimes am so overwhelmed by the "spaghetti mess" that I will put it off for so long, then when I finally get to it, methodically working along, I am surprised at how easily it resolves itself. Time consuming, yes....

I too am worried about EEE. We had a death over the weekend in the next town over from us. They cannot confirm where this young woman (my daughter's age) contracted it. She may have been away at a horse show or something. I've taken to bringing the rest of the family in early in the evenings. Be careful when gardening, please!

[Martha]

Love that clematis! Must get one. The best thing about them is how profusely they bloom, like a blanket of stars.

[Marcia]

Spinning clothes.....I had never thought of it quite that way, but you're right. Definitely no black, unless you're spinning black Shetland. Actually, pants the color of whatever you are spinning work well! I don't get too much fluff as I do a lot of predrafting, but it all mixes with the long gray cathair, so I don't bother to save it.

[claudia]

Watch out. The dictionary definition of "packrat" may soon be "Laurie".

;-)

[minnie]

my sweetie has one of those growing in his back yard and i never knew it was a clematis! i'm used to the ones with the big showy purple flowers.

spinning clothes. i wear jeans or shorts when i spin. the fiber doesnt' stick as badly to denim, or bare skin, lol.

i hate seaming. i don't envyyou in the slightest.

[Judith in Ottawa]

I have a couple of vintage silk chiffon scarves from second hand stores. Draped over my lap they don't seem to catch on most fibres, and between spinning sessions the scarf drapes through the wheel ever so artistically!