Fly in the lace

Junie Marie Mitts by Karen Troyer Ladman,
knitted with Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Worsted.

In my last post, I wasn’t feeling so great and needed a pick-me-up. I’m glad I can say that doing those things - hiking, making yogurt, cooking good foods - definitely helped. I’m not back to 100% happy yet, but I’m climbing out of the pit. The knitting is helping too!

I finished the Junie Marie Mitts while watching the 1958 version of The Fly. For those of you who have not seen it, The Fly is about a man who invented a transporter (this is pre-Star Trek, folks) and, ok, so, I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but there’s an accident that morphs him into a half fly, half man. True to 1950s sensibilities, most of the film is just a normal film about a well-off husband and wife; he’s found success with his scientific experiments, and she’s found success in a happy marriage. Not too bad until he becomes a bug.

Anyway, I’d never seen it before and I got a real kick out of it. The final scene even kind of pulls off being menacing, in a campy sort of way.

The mitts came out great. (Good movie = good mitts?) I particularly like how the thumbs came out - no holes! The pattern includes adding a stitch in that spot between the thumb and the first finger, and in the next row, knitting it together with an existing stitch. I'm still a newbie to mitts, but I think that extra stitch helped avoid creating a hole there. The mitts are a gift for a birthday swap and I’m a little worried that the gift is too simple, but it’s a pattern she clearly likes (so many variations of same in her favorites!) and the neutral color should be easy to wear.

The Jordan pattern by Wendy Bernard, knitted
with Lana Grossa Linea Pura Solo Lino linen yarn.

Now I am free to focus my concentration back on my Jordan, which I’ve whittled away at for a few months. When I started it in May I really thought I’d have it finished to wear for the summer. And I might have, but, as the Knitmore Girls would say, I had a knitting attack - a big one. When I finished the body, it didn’t look right to me. It just didn’t look as pretty as it should have. I strolled through the other projects on Ravelry, just kind of taking a step back and seeing what other people said about the pattern, when I ran across the words “and no purling until the sleeves!” I was all like “what”? And then I realized.

I’ve only knitted two other lace projects, and both of those were knit flat. This one is knit in the round. Since I recently discovered an appreciation for charts, I followed the chart in this pattern, which clearly says to purl on the wrong side. Well, yeah. I mean, the wrong side is purled. But if you’re knitting in the round… you don’t purl. Oh. OH.

Sooo I ripped the entire thing out and started over.

Got pretty sick of it and took a long break to do a different craft project. I honestly wonder if I would have gotten back into it if I hadn’t taken a vacation that involved seven and a half hours on an airplane. That sure did it! I finished one sleeve on the plane (during the Star Trek reboots - that was fun watching them back to back), and now the second sleeve is just flying off the needles. They don’t call ‘em Turbos for nothing! I’m really hoping I can keep this up and finish the project by Labor Day weekend. I might actually be able to wear it once or twice… and then my needles will be free and clear for the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party. Jen does an amazing job running this KAL and I’m looking forward to doing it again. I got a real kick out of it last year, and am hoping this year’s KAL will have a similar effect. Football season, here we come.