Tug O' War
And here we join the cream-colored organic cotton peasant blouse in progress, still looking suspiciously like an aubergine wool peasant blouse. The trouble with raglan shaping is that sure, you can try it on as you go, but who wants to move 800 stitches onto waste yarn to do so? Okay, yes, I am aware that if you have 800 stitches, there are bigger problems at hand than moving them to waste yarn. So that's why I finally did just that. You'll notice the telltale safety pins marking the spots where the raglan shaping should really have ended. At first I thought it was actually passable, but on closer inspection (shortly after I lost feeling in both my arms) I noticed that the sleeve bind-off was tourniquet-like, rather than perky. Then I decided that the fullness over the bust was matronly, rather than mysterious. And after that the sleeve length started to look more dumpy than dainty. There was too much wrong and only one thing to do. After a suitable period spent alternating feelings of denial, rage and disgust, I frogged the sucker. Yanked back about 4 vertical inches, which was probably 10 horizontal inches of raglan fullness. Stupid thing looked like an umbrella without ribs. And a really big neck hole where the top should have been. But it's okay; I can totally do this. Really. Now it looks like this:
Yeah. I know. Not appreciably different than it did before a whole day's worth of stolen moments knitting. But I have faith that it is, in fact, different now. For one thing, the sleeves are way less long, and way less miserably bound off. In fact, I might even be enjoying this little process if it weren't for the fact that I would WAY rather be working on something else. Notably the Faery Ring.
It is still only a pile of skeins on my living room table to the naked eye, but it's a fully-fleshed-out dream pattern in the wilds of my imagination. It's yelling at me from across the room: "Hey! You with the stupid peasant blouse! Put that thing down and come over here and feeeeeeel meeeeee......." It's hypnotic. I could just stand up and stretch. It would be good for me. I've been sitting here slaving away for like, seconds on end. I'll just stand up, and stretch my legs, and if I happen to wander over there to where the Blackwater Abbey yarn is, well what's the harm? And if I accidentally tripped and fell and one of those skeins inadvertently fell onto the swift, well, I would be duty-bound to wind it nicely into a ball, now wouldn't I?
These are the evil thoughts that will keep me from finishing the stealth peasant blouse. Get thee behind me Blackwater! I must finish the reknitting of the aubergine sock wool so I can write the pattern, and get paid, and live to knit another day. Even though the sock yarn is kinda splitty. And I think it might be starting to pill. Abbey yarn would never act like that. And what's with these size two needles, anyway? Whose dumb idea was seed stitch edging in sock yarn on size two's for crying out loud? Stupid designer. What I need is some relief. A little break. I'd still be knitting, you understand; it's not as if I'm not working after all. Lovely sticky worsted on some nice grippy size eights, that's what's wanted here. Just for a minute. I'll just cast on for the swatch. I have to swatch, don't I? Never mind I've made like a hundred things with this exact yarn. Never mind that I know just what to expect of it in my hands and on my needles, and that's why I wanted to use it in the first place. A responsible knitter swatches things; that's how it's done. In fact, it could be said that frittering away my knitting time on this ill-behaving prototype is impeding my valuable swatch-making time...
Enough already! I shall ignore the siren song of the tricksy Irish wool. This pretend-cream-colored-organic-cotton-aubergine-sock-wool albatross is about to be removed from my neck by the sheer force of will required to complete it. Must...finish...peasant....blouse......