General Ginger Knits

random thoughts on knitting and the universe

Friday, January 21, 2005

200 vs 175

It's been a bit of a tough week for me. Work has been really busy. Car has been in the shop. Extracurricular commitments have been numerous. I offer these excuses as to why my knitting came out a little on the short side. Short of stitches that is.

I've been working on the French market bag this week. I've always wanted to knit this bag because it is so cute and, lets face it, a woman can never have too many handbags. I've never made a felted object before and this looked like the perfect candidate. I was encouraged to add extra inches in case the bag felted too shallow so I've been knitting and knitting for what feels like days now. Last night I was thoroughly excited because I'd finally finished the body and was ready to knit the handles. I was mindlessly knitting away and binding off the appropriate stitches. That's when it happened. As I got to what should be the last handle I suddenly ran out of stitches. "There should be more stitches here than this" I said to myself. So I counted out all the handle stitches and all the bind off stitches. No, I didn't make any counting mistakes there. "This is crazy" I thought to myself.

So I started counting all of the stitches on my needles. Disbelief on my face after counting all the way around once, I counted again. Huh. That's when it hit me: there weren't enough stitches there because I never increased way back there at the base of the bag to 200 stitches. For some odd, unexplainable reason (see excuses above) I only increased to 175 stitches.

Ok. So there I was with only 175 stitches to work with in a project that I'd been working on for days as a way to relax. I felt mentally devastated. I toyed with what to do. I could always rip back to the bottom of the bag and reknit it. Its only the knit stitch in the round after all. But in my heart I really didn't want to rip and reknit. I wanted to carry on and hope for the best. I suppose that I really wouldn't make a very good designer because I get pretty stressed out when I have to deviate from the pattern. The stress began to mount on my shoulders last night as I ran from the knitting room to the calculator on the computer and back again repeatedly ranting incessantly about the impending failure of this project. UFO ville was looming. I'm no great shakes at mathematics so trying to figure out how to divide four handles evenly on 175 stitches wasn't computing in my head. I wonder what my sweetheart must have been thinking, poor thing. Thanks for putting up with me darling!

The math is now figured, the handles divided, one section is already complete. The big question now is, what is this bag going to look like after its felted?

5 Comments:

Blogger doubleknot said...

Don't worry I am sure your handbag will come out fine - just a little smaller. Your sweetie must be a real doll - I know I get obsessed with things and my cutie just puts up with it - he knows that this too shall pass. Working on my afgan slowly - I am pleased with the pattern - sort of a cross hatch but simple stiches. I think I will see if I can find any blogs on crochet - though I really enjoy watching the progres of your knitting projects. Keep on knitting. later

7:07 AM  
Blogger Tami said...

I would not have ripped it out either. I think it is going to come out great. I love your color choice for the bag. Can't wait to see it finished.

10:00 AM  
Blogger sturdygirl said...

I think it will turn out great. The French Market bags I've seen are sort of floppy at the sides anyway, so I think it's possible that 200 stitches is too many. Felting is an adventure - good luck!

11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ginger,

I love the orienteering hat. Is it your own design? A commercial pattern? And if I EVER see that wine of COURSE I will have to try it.

Roberta
http://roberta.typepad.com/robknits

11:32 AM  
Blogger General Ginger said...

Thank you all for your positive encouragement. The bag is finished and awaiting its photo shoot! Roberta, the orienteering hat was inspired by Coronet on knitty.com but I designed the pattern myself.

7:30 AM  

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