May 14, 2010

The Never Ending Knitting Project


So remember back when I decided I loved knitting again? An event that I now totally blame on the Great Storm and then the Second Great Storm of this past winter? Well, Of course as soon as it got warm I forgot all about knitting. It's not that I don't want to knit, it's just that I'd rather be out in the garden or going for a walk or doing something outside. And also, I'm a totally heat wimp. I'm already hot and it's only May. And when it's hot I can't stand to have socks on much less carry around a huge pile of wool for my knitting project.

Except this week it wasn't all that hot. Well today is hot, but other than today, it's been kind of cool and dreary. And gray outside. Which has me picking back up the never ending knitting project that I started During the Second Great Storm.

Sometime during those snowed in days I fell in love with a pattern from Pick Up Sticks for slippers that they call Snugs. They looked so warm and cozy and Will was constantly complaining about how cold my feet were (OK, I cant stand to wear socks in the winter either. It's just so much easier to stick my feet under Will!) and they had the pattern at the knitting store downtown... They were felted which meant they would have to be knit bigger, but they couldn't take that long, could they?

Alas, yes, they could.

It probably has something to do with the fact that I stopped knitting in about March, but these things are taking for-ev-er. And they aren't just big, they are huge. Clown like and comically huge. Every time I get them out to work on Will laughs at them. He's sure they are not going to felt down to size. And well, I have my doubts. Especially since the liner turned out bulkier and longer than the outside. But I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. And keep knitting.

I am, sort of, halfway there. Sort of because I still have to knit the bottoms but I'm a little worried that I'll run out of wool. So I'm saving the bottoms for last since I have a different color (because in my enthusiasm I actually ordered enough wool to make me and Evelyn a pair. Ha!)
that I can make the soles with if necessary. But I have the lining and the shell of one boot done. And I managed to remember to wind the wool this time instead of trying to use it in the big loopy skein. (Duh, I actually remember helping my mom do this, why I tried to make it through the first skein without, who knows.)At this rate I might just finish by next winter. And as for Evelyn's, well, I'll make them extra big, just in case it takes me another year to get through those. Poor Will and Briton are going to have to go without. I don't think I can face another my size (yes, Briton's feet are almost as big as mine! EEK!) or worse a giant size 13 pair. Can you imagine how enormous those would be unfelted? They'd take over the house!

Now I just have to keep myself going despite the return of the heat. Maybe if I cranked the air way up.... (kidding kidding, bad for the earth, bad for the wallet, I know I know. But it might help!)