Goals

I figured this sweater has about 65,000 stitches. I think I might have underestimated. I’m half way though the pattern and I’m down 33,000 – well, we’ll see. I want to wear it this winter. That means I need to knit more.

When I started using two colors (I hit the 120 row pattern), I managed to do 12 rows on my first week. Remember, I’m knitting circular – one row has 274 stitches.

I gauge my weeks on when I get to my LYS. I try to go every Saturday to just look at all the yarns I can’t buy because I’ve got this silly sweater to finish. Like these wonderful things at Schaefer Yarn. Oh, sorry – beautiful, wonderful sweater.
And, my promise to curtail frivolous spending; so I can’t sign up for Yarn of the Month.

And, I can’t buy this Mighty Leaf on sale which I shouldn’t be buying anyway. Duh! Even at that price! And, they extended the sale 3 more weeks to torture me!.

And no Blog reading for a while, either (except the Yarn Harlot, of course).

The first week I started stranded knitting, I needed some knitting adjustments. I couldn’t hold two colors in each hand and twist and knit without dropping the needles and yarn all over the place. So, I learned to hold one color of yarn in each hand. Now my left hand knits Continental and my right hand knits American. This works for me.

Also, my LYS said to twist the yarn every 3 stitches. So, I did. Faithfully. Until I read Elizabeth Zimmerman’s suggestions to twist after 5 stitches. (Technically, she said never knit a pattern with a stitch count of more than 5 stitches in one color – but too late – some of them are 6 or 7). So, I adjusted – which helped increase my speed. Last week, I hit 20 rows in one week. The sweater looks better in the front with fewer twists on the back too.

Top half of this picture shows the twists no more than every three (looks painful, eh?) and the bottom half is no more than 5 stitiches before a twist.

I have a goal. To wear this sweater before it’s too late and the warm weather sets in. I want to knit 30 rows per week of the pattern for the next two weeks and then I’m done with the body pattern. I did not get off to a winning start this week (I did get the Blog up – but, at the cost of knitting).

So, 6 rows a day until Saturday to make my goal of 30 rows (8,250 stitches). I had a doctor’s appointment today – yeh, two rows down (7,700 to go) and it took me 50 minutes (with interruptions). So my running rate is optimistically, 15 minutes a row; pessimistically, 30 minutes; realistically, somewhere in between.

Looks like I need to devote a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours a day to knitting to meet goal this week. Wish me luck.