Tuesday, April 19, 2011

2-At-A-Time FAIL

I'm okay, really.  Just wondering how I will ever get my kids back to their math books after one week off spent preparing for a houseguest and now another week off  because our guest (Auntie Kate of the mad crafting skills) is finally here and it's spring break and all the other kids are home and the weather's nice.

Auntie Kate gave each of the girls an 18-inch doll (NOT American Girl, thank you, both she and I shudder at the thought of spending 100 dollars on a toy) and then we trooped off to the fabric store and bought patterns for fun doll clothes and picked up a couple (well, 4) fat quarter bundles on our way out (30 percent off!) and, um, a few other things and well, anyway, we don't really have a lot of restraint when we visit the fabric store together.  And then Auntie Kate supplied moral support as I ripped back zillions of rows on the socks that I've been knitting for Rachel that turned out to be a tad too big (as in, they were big on me) and you know what?  The problem with knitting 2-at-a-time socks is that when you have to rip back?  That's also 2 at a time.

2-at-a-time, indeed!  I feel betrayed.  And weary...
What I do not understand is why none of my knitting friends bothered to tell me I was knitting a sock (no, 2 socks) way too big for any 8-year-old girl to wear.  I have no spatial reasoning myself; I needed an intervention, and no one cared enough to stage one.  So now I have 2 less-than-half-done socks, each on its own set of DPN's (and what sort of a miracle was it that I located 8 size 0 DPN's all at once?) because I couldn't figure out how to start doing them 2-at-a-time in the middle, as it were. 

I know!  I suffer.  And not silently, either.

[fabric photo: Imagine Fabric]
[sock photo: Little Monsters Blog]

12 comments:

  1. Oh, ouch! I haven't tried socks 2 at a time, and I hadn't thought about the issue of messing up 2 at a time before. I think I'll stick to single-sock construction! Not *quite* as painful to frog.

    My dream is to make 2 at a time, one inside the other. But I know my skill level isn't there. Maybe someday.

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  2. I can barely sew and I could drop hundreds in a fabric store.

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  3. I am learning how to knit, and my friends/teachers do NOT hold back. But they're also very complimentary when I'm doing something well (enough). So I have a good balance going with them...

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  4. For me, this was like reading the instruction manual for a super-conductor. Me no comprendo la lingo.

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  5. I'd be ticked do make that discovery. To the second power, ticked.

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  6. Ouch! Sorry to hear it. I must admit that I prefer doing socks one at a time...mainly because I dislike cables flopping around, but also because even though they're done serially, each individual sock seems to go quickly.

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  7. My daughter and I have gotten pattern books for her dolls and had a lot of fun with those quarter bundles --they're very hard to resist!

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  8. But we love it when you complain!

    I wish we had an Auntie Kate. I always bring home material and need a cheerleader to get me going. FUN!

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  9. Two-at-a-time socks? Great idea. I'm still working on sock two from my last brilliant idea. No more socks for me.

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  10. Well, at least you can knit something.

    I can't knit a thing.

    Or sew. I tried once in home ec and almost sewed my finger. My teacher was like, "Um, how about we practice setting a table?"

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  11. This is why I need to give up crafts. Oh, the stress!

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  12. There's no point to suffering silently! And the only thing I've ever knitted is a scarf. Or a noose, depending on how you look at it.

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