Knit Along: Leg Warmers from The Yarn Company - Day 4

Triumph over limitations...

I have come up with a handy coping mechanism for my wicked case of “second sock syndrome”--or in this case, “second leg-warmer syndrome.” 
 
When I bound off the top of the first leg-warmer, I was NOT ALLOWED TO GET UP OUT OF THE CHAIR until I had cast on and accomplished an inch of the second leg-warmer.  As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t allow myself to seam up the first piece until I’d done an inch of the second.  Sort of the knitting version of Mary Poppins’ adage “well begun is half done.”  Now that I’m started, it doesn’t seem like such a monumental challenge to keep going.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  This did make for a rather miserable 90 minutes as I cast off, cast on, drug myself through the first inch, and then did my least favorite task of all:  seaming.  I hate seaming.  And this twisty yarn kept tangling on every stitch, so that even a couple of decent TV shows and half of a good movie didn’t redeem the time.  This was sheer I’m gonna get it done willpower--something I don’t often possess in great quantities.

Will they end up on legs?  Or adapted to be sleeves?  I don’t know yet.  I do know, however, that there’s now a halfway decent chance that there will be TWO of them. 

And that’s a victory.

Knit Along: Noro Legwarmers from Yarn Company - Day 2

Deliriously simple...

I’d forgotten how different Noro feels before you wash and block it.  I end up so transfixed by the colors that I forget it has always struck me as scratchy at first--even though this is the first time I’ve worked with Noro Taiyo, which is sock weight.  Finer fibers don’t make it softer, it still has that scratchy, natural feel. It never stays that way, but I somehow expect the texture to live up to the spectacular color.  And it does, just not while you’re knitting it.  That’s a bit of a letdown for someone as tactile as me, because I’m so affected by the feel of a yarn.  I need that “oooo” factor as I work it between my fingers.  

It’s why I’m so picky about my needles, too, and why I happily plunked down good money for a set of KnitPick’s Options Interchangable Harmony Wood needles--but NOT until I’d touched them. They don't show up in this photo, but you'll see them soon.  That "gotta touch" impulse is why I hardly ever buy stuff online...I need to touch it.  Even technology like laptops and cellphones--I must know what it feels like in my hands before I buy it. What about you?

This pattern from The Yarn Company is deliriously simple.  A bit of ribbing, two feet of regular increases, a bit more ribbing, and you’re done.  I think that’s why Noro works so well in this project--I’d go bonkers with a tweed or a solid color yarn.  All that stockinette could numb your brain.  This is an excellent project for sitting in a lecture, watching TV, that sort of thing.  I'd never classify it as entertaining enough for travel, although it's certainly portable enough.  You don't even need a stitch counter if you can read your rows correctly (more on that useful skill in the next installment).

I suspect the challenge will come for me where it always does in these sorts of projects:  making myself stay focused long enough to do the second one.  I’ve got a single sock and a lonely mitten ready to stand witness to my “second sock syndrome.”  

Anyone got good ideas for cures?  Effective bribes--I mean incentives?  I’m all ears...