Even the best cowlgirls have Daddy issues!

Good day all!

It's time for another project to work through my issues.

The lucky project is a present for my Dad. Talk about issues to work through.
OK I don't have major Daddy issues, but the quest for perfection for him is something in real life that is sort of there. Most people want to please their parents and keep 'em happy. I am  no exception!

I have named this cowl  as a play on an episode title of one of my favorite TV shows Lost.

A little background on my Dad and my knitting experiences

My Dad is very specific about what he wants. I have knit him things over the years and he loves them all, but sometimes he makes me scream.

Example 1: THE PERFECT SCARF!
 He has spent the majority of my life looking for the perfect winter scarf. Everyone he has had was too long, too short, too wide, not wide enough, not soft enough (you  get the picture!).
So I set out to make him the scarf he wanted.
Firstly, it had to be cashmere! I explained that for what he wanted it would be hundreds of dollars. I brought him an alternative to feel. Alpaca! WE HAVE A WINNER!
Next he think that the machine ones he gets are great and he wants the weave to be just like that  because if there are holes of any kind he will be cold. I explained how knitting worked and that it would be fine. So he wasn't truly convinced but he decided to trust me. I did a seed stitch scarf.
When he got it he loved it. He doesn't wear it too often as the last few winters have not been that cold.
I CALL THIS AN OVER ALL WIN

Example 2: THE NEVER ENDING BLANKET!
Dad liked to have a perfectly square blanket so he doesn't have to think about which is the correct end.
He wanted brick colours
NO HOLES
After 2 years I finally finished the blanket that he totally loved, but  the negotiation to get it done was crazy. He told me he wanted a king size blanket. WHAT? I think he figured out the craziness of that.
After I had given it to him, he wanted me to continue the edging to make it bigger. I told him no that it was done.
NOT SURE ABOUT THIS WIN!

Example 3: THE SOCKS HE DIDN'T KNOW HE WANTED!
So this holiday season, I didn't ask what he wanted and I decided on a pair of plain grey socks.
He loved them, but as I knew already, he only wears one kind of sock. This was a moral victory as he loved them showed them off to everyone and keeps them in his home office in full view.

So that brings us to today.
He has so many specifics, but I am determined to get it right for him.
This will finish knitting up by the end of the weekend. He won't see it until his birthday. So we shall see!

So long blanket!

That's right the blanket is no longer in progress. She was finished today!
What have I learned about myself?
I need to know when to stop. I couldn't let myself stop.
A blanket that was supposed to be 600ish yards turned into 837 yards.
Sometimes letting go is ok.

Here it is on the boardroom table at the office. It is lovely, I have to admit.

Here it is in funky photo mode. Neat colouring!

 Again another iPhone photo. I love that the purple looks pinkish grey.

See I do photos in access too!
Ultimately this is a beautiful baby blanket. The hard work, the effort was worth it.
So lessons learned?
1. Sometimes even if you do too much it's ok if the end product is great
2. Sometimes just going with my gut is the right thing to do. I have to trust that I know what I am doing.
3. Imperfection is part of life. Even with imperfections, something beautiful is before you!

The next project awaits!

iPhone photo+ knitting = AWESOME!

So I am taking a break from blanket & emotional analysis to show off some awesome photos of  a knitting project that I am working on.

This lovely shawl I am working on is called Color Affection. It is knit with one colour then you stripe with a second colour then you add a third colour and knit with short rows. Clear as mud right?

Well here are the photos. Remember these have a cool finish so the colours don't look like that in reality!

So this is a black and white styled photo. What I enjoy with this photo is you can see the subtleties of the three different shades of colours.

The colours are a grey, darker purple-pink with a small amount of variegation and a light pink.
Also of note is the direction of the knitting it self. At the bottom of the right is the all grey. The majority of what you see is the darker pink and grey striped together and then the angled 3 colours together. It is not solely how the fold works that is creating the shape.

So this one shows the colours better but gives it a funkier colour exposure. Even the grey comforter it is sitting on looks cool.

iPhone art and knitting are awesome!

Blanket in progress 4

So I took a couple of days off to craft other things.

Notes on this project:

• It is very easy to pull out and put away. No stress and easy to fix the fewer mistakes. I LOVE LESS STRESS!
• Every time I pick it up, something new as an idea pops into my mind. Too bad they would mean starting all over again. 
• I trust myself, but I need to let go more often and sooner! Then point above would happen less often.
• Weaving in ends are good to do as you go along. I am using superwash so spit felting won't work, but all those ends hanging around seem to create some sort of issue in my brain. Too many ends means too much jumbled mess in my head. Funny how it works that way.
• A couple of years ago this wouldn't have happened. WHY you may ask? I guess I don't trust my instincts or myself entirely, so as I am generally in life getting more comfortable with my self, the free form blanket also becomes more fun and easy going.

Here is the latest shot:

 Here it is with a cool effect from the iPhone:

Blanket in progress 3

Another day in blanket land.

I am bored with white. I have never been a huge fan of white, but I had it and so I wanted to use it up.
Why the aversion to white? I am not sure. It doesn't thrill or excite me, but I use it as its necessary. Maybe one needs the boring to enjoy the rest. To quote the Baker's wife in Into the Woods: "Just remembering you've had an and when you're back to or, makes the or mean more then it did before."

Anywho I am about to move away from the white and into grey. I am psyched for the next step. Still not totally sure where this will lead fully.

I think I'm about  1/3 through the blanket. The stripes equal 10 inches. If I do 2 more sections that makes it approx 30 inches. Add a couple of inches of boarder and voila! a decent sized baby blanket.

Still not sure of the boarder, but I am not there yet. So I will relax and meditate and let the force tell me what its meant to look like.

The plan is to have this done on May 13. Then I will move onto another project to focus on in the blog.

I craft multiple things at a time, so this is only a sampling of what is going on!

Blanket in Progress part 2

So here I am on the 3rd day of the blanket.
Do I know what I am doing entirely? Nope

Am I worried at all? Nope

The biggest thing on my mind is should I weave in the ends?
I'm actually pretty happy that I am not in the least bit stressed how it is going to turn out. Sometimes not having it all mapped out makes it more exciting. Which I guess I could follow through in life.

Here is the photo of where I was yesterday.
I am a bit farther now!

Blanket in progress day One

So I know its been a loooong time.

I think I'm back to trying to be more consistent in my blogging. Another one of my plans for the last year of my 30's.

So for now I am going to chronicle a baby blanket that I am working on. There is no other reason then I feel like it.

This is a free form blanket I started on May 1. There is no baby to take ownership but I am sure I will find one!

May 1, 2012
chosen 3 balls of cascade 220 superwash in white, teal and purple.
Plan stripes of the colours. white, then a purple, then teal, back to purple and white to finish it off.
Cast On 130 stitches in the white
Knit all the rows.
Plan 20 rows of white.
While knitting said row of white realise it might be nice to use the white as an over all boarder. I will add on the  side boarders at the end.
realise that I don't want 20 rows of white. It's too much stop at 16 instead.
Start the purple.
Think: You know it would look really great if I had some blank in there. OOOO 2 rows black with a 8-10 rows of white then 2 rows black and colour
Decide that teal is not what I want
Oooo I have black and grey. Let's make purple the colour and then use the shades in chunks.
Boarder? Oh I'll decide later.

May 2, 2012
Forget part of the design plan, but my new plan will work out better then you might expect.
To be continued..........

I feel like sometimes this is how my brain works, neither good nor bad.
I find myself with great ideas that I am easily swayed by. I sort of plan sort of go with the flow!

 I hope to have this done in a week - 10 days. It's possible. So get ready for some crazy blanket moments.