In the name of Progress

This week was pretty rough – mostly from getting back in the swing at work – which has been a nightmare. Financial models, packaging approval, fussing over moulds that need tweeking. I’ve been here for a year – love it, but it’s tough. I’m also not the type to work until 11pm – which is not so good as it’s truly required and it makes me feel like a slacker. I just shut down and lose steam. On Friday this happened at 4pm and my team was feeling the same so we just called it a day, knowing full well that it’s going to be right back at us on Monday.

The good news is that I’ve made some real progress on Ms. Marigold. It looks like a chaotic mess of loose ends so here’s what it will eventually look like (hopefully) but here's where I am.

I really love this yarn – it is my first time with KnitPicks (Elegance) and I’m in love – the quality, the price. This is my first sweater project (other than the Childs Placket – yes, still not weaved in/blocked) and my first time using smaller needles and getting a non bulky outcome.

One thing that really stalled me when starting to knit just a short while back was the price. Living in Nolita in NYC results in three obvious nearby yarn shops – Downtown Yarns, Purl and Suss (no longer). All of these stores, while I’m sure are beginner friendly, really stock the most gorgeous, soft, unique and I’m sure highest quality yarn – but all of it is really expensive.

I’m still at the stage where I look at a yarn and have no idea what to do with it – the color is easy but the width of the strand, the texture – I just don’t have the vision to see what I can become and therefore, I see the price tag and freak out a bit. I need a pattern and buy what it calls for and hence there is the reverse – like I’m dying to knit the mans sweater in the back of Last Minute Gifts but it requires like 12 skeins of Manos and at $15 a skein – we’re talking $180. I don’t have the know how to figure out an alternative.

Anyway – I feel like this will come and I had an aha moment at about the time I discovered KnitPicks. I saw Ms. Marigold on Carrieoke and then discovered that there were several bloggers who did Ms Marigold and I saw all their pictures and outcomes. So I started searching for the Hourglass Sweater and while the yarn suggested in the pattern was expensive, I noticed that many people were using all sorts of stuff- and some were using Knit Picks!

All of this is such a random stream of words but to me I’m getting this as progress. Progress in my knitting learning and progress in my Ms. Marigold. The other progress is seeing what’s out there from lovely and interesting knitters. Before discovering all these blogs I’m now obsessed with – I just kept seeing patterns from the few books I have and Vogue Knitting – most of which I either hated bc they are really, well, lame, or they were too hard/advanced. Ms. Marigold was sparked by a blog and so now is my new (yet scary venture) into the Norweigen Mittens inspired by Yarnmonster (thank you mom for Knitting Around and my Knit Picks order for Christmas)