More Comfort Knitting Needed

I've been feeling a little sick the last few days. And although I try hard not to whine, in my head there is a constant drone. And yesterday I realized that I needed some more comfort knitting.

The problem with my Truffle Tunic is that the colourwork has got me down. I like it, don't get me wrong. But I was just never picking it up. I know, in my head, that the "tricky" part of the long floats would be over quickly if I would just get to it.

But I'm not getting to it.

And now I'm sick[ish] and feeling sorry for myself and really wanting some more comfort knitting.

That's when I had the great idea. I could put the front with all its colourwork on a stitch holder and start on the back. The back is just miles and miles of plain knitting--just what I needed.

And that's exactly what I did.

The stitches from the front are on a holder, and the whole thing is in a time out.

And now I am done the rows of 1x1 ribbing and started on the 3x3 ribbing. Five more inches of that to go.

That sad part of the story is that I forgot that the ribbing is done on smaller needles. So I could have actually started the back without worrying about the stitch holder. And it would have saved me one time of casting on and knitting 111 stitches and having to rip it all out. ::philosophical shrug:: That's alright, comfort knitting is so good I don't mind doing it twice.

And now I'm going to go do some more...(cough cough, sniff)

Comfort Knitting

I worked a lot of hours this week, and one night when I came home, tired and drained, I told Troy I was eating Captain Crunch cereal and KoolAid for dinner. He nodded understandingly and said, "Comfort food."

I thought of that yesterday as I started to feel bad in the afternoon and evening. I sat on the couch watching college football (Welcome back!) wishing for some knitting that I didn't have.

The summit scarf is going well, I am making progress. But it had too many short rows and things to keep track of. Plus I couldn't watch TV while doing it.

The socks I'm doing were in the car and I wasn't about to go get them. (Don't mock me! I wasn't feeling good.) Plus they were at a point I had to think about them; it wasn't just knitting round and round.)

The lace scarf was definitely too much to handle.

And then I realized: I need comfort knitting. Some straight stocking stitch in a wool I enjoyed. Rows long enough that I could knit for a while before I had to turn around. Pieces big enough that I would be knitting for a while before I had to think about things like shaping.

Lucky for me I had prepared for this situation. Just on Friday night actually, I took a fresh look through the Ravelry database for a tunic pattern for this wool:

that I raveled from this sweater from Goodwill:

I wasn't sure what I wanted in a pattern, but there were a lot of patterns I knew I didn't want. I've been looking for at least six months and had never really found anything. (I found one pattern I liked, but all the examples on Ravelry didn't really fit right, so I didn't bother with it.) And then, boom!, on Friday I found two. Maybe it's their new pattern search function. Maybe I just hadn't noticed these. Or, maybe it was because I thought this wool was a bulky weight and when I finally swatched it earlier in the week, it turned out it's more like a DK weight. Different pattern set for that--big difference!

In any case, this afternoon, I cast on for this sweater by Just call me Ruby. (The pattern is published on Knitting on the Net.) I'll be shopping at Red Purl for some white or off-white to do the colourwork. (Might be the Rowan BFL that I made Troy's sweater out of. We'll see.)

My favourite part? The "turtleneck" is actually cowl. It's a separate piece and you can wear it or not based on the weather. Look at the pattern for a picture of the sweater's actual boatneck. It's nice!

And it worked: I felt comforted. Now, however, I'm wondering if I'm crazy to start another project. But how could I tell myself no? I was all pathetic laying on the couch...giving myself those puppy eyes. Please?

By the way, my new pillow was wonderful to use as I was sitting on the couch. So comfy on my back, and I'm still loving it!