Distracting
Need a low-stakes, low-stress project today? The coloring book based on those paper stars might do the trick! It's free, and anyone can download it right over here. I can't promise it'll keep your kids distracted or make your terrible relative any less infuriating. But I spent a happy hour distracting myself with pretty colors and tidy lines and orderly shapes. And sometimes that's enough to call it a win. Here's hoping your day isn't too stressful and has at least a few moments of calm!
Completely fair
And back up we go. I timed it, and each column (assuming I'm not stopping to take photos or videos) takes me about four minutes to run down and then work back up. So including the time to rip the decreases out and reknit them, fixing this will take less than two hours of work. Which, given that I knit the whole hat in two afternoons, seems completely fair.
Don’t yank
Ooooooh, ok, so this is a sneaky thing that sometimes happens when you run a column of stitches down. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the yarn. It's just a thing that happens sometimes. All you do is clip it and set the strands free. Clipping works better than yanking. Yanking makes things even fuzzier. So just clip it and keep on going, it'll all come out in the end.
Scribbling
I have it on good authority that I'm not the only one who still has their colored pencils (or who has obtained more in adulthood, a move that I completely support)! Which means I suspect I'm not the only one who might enjoy a little coloring book inspired by our lovely stars. Because really, every single time I see them, I think 'ooooh, that would be fun to color...' So this year I made that happen! I commissioned a talented friend to turn the outlines of the stars into line drawings, and I put together a little coloring book with [...]
Accidentally
Right, so, the stars... The stars and their nice, tidy, orderly, geometric shapes... The ones that look like stained glass... A few of them may sort of turned into coloring pages. Accidentally you understand. It's a known risk. These things happen. Any of you the sort that might be interested in a download with a few of those? Because I mean if I've already succumbed to my baser instincts and have them to play with myself, it seems only fair to share my toys, yeah?
Improvements
The hat improvement continues. Now all I have to do is run each column of purl stitches down to the cast on, then work them back up as twisted stitches instead. I'm doing it on the inside of the hat, because that way I'll be working with them as knit stitches instead of purl stitches, and I find it faster to work knit stitches back up. But that's just a matter of preference. You could do it either way and the result would be the same. I'll work my way around the hat and do each column in turn [...]
Clarify
So when someone says 'yes, but are they *real* mittens?' all I can do is say 'yeah, so, can you clarify what you mean by real?' Because I mean they are real as in not imaginary. They exist. You can touch them. But they are not sized to be worn by humans. They do, however, look quite delightful on our little owl friend!
Not tidy
Ok so something was bugging me. There were a handful of spots on this hat where the stitches just aren't quite as tidy as I want them to be. Not horrible...but just not tidy. And look, they'd probably block out. And they're certainly the sort of thing that literally no one else will ever notice (despite fears to the contrary, people just do NOT come up to strangers on the street and say 'I noticed some slight irregularities in the texture of your hat and am scandalized, explain yourself at once'). But they're bugging me. And, in large part [...]
And yet
I am being too picky...way, Way, WAY too picky. I know it. You know it. We all know it. And yet... Should you wish to watch the carnage in real time, you may do so here.
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