My Fandom Knitting (not what you think)

[lizcommotion]

I am currently knitting SweaterBabe's Covetable Cape.It is a lovely pattern, and I cast on with some trepidation as I was watching Downton Abbey Season 4 Christmas Special while knitting a new pattern (i.e. counting, adding stitch markers, etc.) that also included a large cable pattern and two lace sections. It went swimmingly. I even watched about half of X2 and got about 15 rows into the top-down pattern without any major errors. (OK, so perhaps I missed the first row of the button band -- no one will know that kind of thing.)

Then I went to Knit Night -- the place where I tend to get tons of knitting done -- and things went downhill quickly. I purled where I should have knit on the cables; I lost track of where I was on the lace and cable charts even though I was marking it down on the pattern (somehow that didn't match up to my actual knitting); I dropped stitches; in attempting to fix things everything got worse. My attempts to insert a lifeline were very frustrating.

Yesterday I finally yanked out the needle and re-cast on. I decided to try watching Tin Man, a fantasy miniseries about Oz. Again, things went swimmingly (except somehow the cable is now on a garter stitch background instead of reverse stockinette, but that's less annoying to knit, so I'm good with that as it still looks great.)

Today I sat down with the Madonna Pandora station on, and I tried knitting the next row. Just the next row. It took about 20 minutes to get through the first lace section (somehow I had one too many stitches, I could not figure out why, eventually I fixed it with the time honored tradition of knitting two together ;) ). Then I got to the cable section, and OMFG. I dropped a stitch, found it, tinked agonizingly back (tinking is not kind in cables), knit again...and there was another dropped stitch. Found it, tinked back again, the same thing happend.

At this point I yelled (literally) at my knitting that if it didn't behave it was going in the closet for a week while I knit hats. From handspun. So there.

I fixed the dropped stitch (which took time, it was cantankerous), and finished the row with no further problems.

This seems very odd to me, because it's completely opposite of my usual knitting experience. TV = mistakes ; knitting people = progress; late nights = waking up in the morning to regret and bizarre knitting errors and wondering what the heck I did the night before.

I can only draw one conclusion from this turn of events:

My knitting has gained sentience, and it (she?) enjoys late nights and watching geeky TV. To optimize the knitting of this project, I should take her to the new Captain America movie and leave an assortment of comic books in my knitting bag for when I'm not able to knit.

That way, we'll both be happy. And there'll be no need for closet exile.

Comments

[via_ostiense]

Ha! I also experienced this recently: knitting along to West Wing = great progress; knitting in a setting where I was just listening to people talk = missed yarnovers left and right (which is bizarre -- I swear I was doing the yarnovers, but when I went back to count stitches, they had disappeared!).

[lizcommotion]

I am glad I'm not the only one, although part of me wonders if we've reached the Knitting Singularity if it's happening for more than one of us. ;)

(PS Yay West Wing, I need to add that to my watch list :D)

[pensnest]

From my perspective your knitting experience is back to front! But then, I don't really look at the screen if I'm knitting, as I haven't mastered the art of doing even stocking stitch without watching what I'm doing. I generally put something very familiar in the DVD, for company.

I have a peacocky shawl in progress which at the moment I dare not work on at all, for it's at the stage where each row takes me about forty minutes*, and distraction by, say, Jonny Lee Miller, would be catastrophic. I have not dared take it to knitting group, because that, unlike "episodic TV which I've already seen", is way too distracting. 'Tis a puzzle.

* I tell you this, though: it is *riddled* with safety lines!

[lizcommotion]

See, but I'm watching completely new and unfamiliar TV! What!

[pensnest]

Skillz!

[snippy]

I have a project that I can only knit successfully while gaming. That's tabletop RPG, dice and paper and pencil, we're all superheroes gaming on Saturday nights.

[zcat_abroad]

+10 to superpowers?!?

[strixluna]

I used to have specific D&D session knitting projects :)

[snippy]

Heh, we're actually playing Champions right now. I usually GM when we play D&D.

[strixluna]

I think it's a great plan!

I'm currently working on a shawl for a friend's wedding (not for me to wear... for her to wear... as in it'll be up there and will be as noticed as her dress... NO PRESSURE!). And it's being knit to reruns of Doctor Who (New Who, not Classic Who) because I need company for the tedious bits (that would be the every other row of purling straight across).