Fustration

Ever have one of those projects that should be easy, but stupid things keep screwing up?

I was so thrilled with the tuck stitch baby blanket I just finished (even though the edging had me whipped for a bit). Then I moved on and did a whole bunch of different dishcloths to use up stash. I think I made 13, and gave my mom a couple. Then, I decided to use up more stash, and make a boy baby blanket. I choose a tuck pattern from a book and got started.

Right off, there was a problem. The pattern had three rows of the Main Colour, and two rows of Contrast Colour. Well....it's no different in machine knitting than in handknitting. The MC is never going to be at the right end. I could lift the carriage and move it to the correct end, but I didn't know if this would mess anything up with the tuck. So, I changed the pattern to have four rows MC, two rows CC. Now it didn't look at all like the picture, but it was 'okay'. It definitely was taking longer than the original blanket, but still tolerable.

Until.....I was walking up the driveway and noticed that something looked 'off'.Can you see it? When working at the machine, you're looking at the purl side, and particularly in tuck stitches, there is not a lot of definition (especially when using yarns that don't have a high contrast). It's not very noticeable, but it just looked wrong somehow.

In about the middle of this picture, you can see where the colour pattern is off from the rest. It would actually have looked neat if the entire blanket was like that, but not one stripe!So, I ripped it off, and re-wound the yarn. It's Bernat Baby Co-ordinates, so big pull skeins---to big to wind on my winder. So now I'm dealing with having to pull of enough yarn for each row.

I decided to try the simple tuck pattern I used for that girly blanket, but do three rows MC, two rows CC, and just pick up the carriage and move it to the other end when needed. I wanted the odd number of MC rows because 1) I have more blue than white and 2) I thought it would make it more interesting.

More interesting? Not nearly enough so to justify the extra brain power needed. Indeed, after about 6", I looked carefully at the pattern that formed, and found that there didn't seem to be one. There should have been if I had just been repeating things correctly. I found the mistake row, and decided I didn't want to fix it, I ripped again!

Took a break, and made the longies from the Briggs & Little from the K-W fair. Started the blue and white baby blanket AGAIN after school yesterday. This time, the same simple tuck as the girl blanket, but 4 rows MC, 2 rows CC. It seems to be going great, even if the pattern is a little boring. Sometimes boring is the winner.