Meticulous
This is not an adjective that would normally describe me. I have never wanted to be considered meticulous in almost anything I do.
I Can Be Meticulous When I Want To Be
Generally, I have always had a goal of being good enough. I have no issue cutting corners or having imperfections in my work. Even when I was still in school, I could never understand why someone would strive to get straight A’s. It always seemed significantly more difficult to get the highest grades. And B’s were perfectly acceptable to both my parents and me.
There have been some exceptions in this behavior on my part. For instance, when my mom asked me to knit her a cardigan a number of years ago. I was familiar with how fastidious she was in choosing clothes that fit well and looked well on her. I couldn’t just slop together some yarn and create an acceptable garment for her. So I strove for perfection. And I always felt I came close.
Sorry for the crappy photo, but trust me, the sweater came out as close to perfect as I’ve ever done.
Similarly, as I’m finishing another knitter’s work, I’m starting to enjoy matching her level of care and love she put into her knitting. For example, one thing I always pooh-poohed was when knitters felt they had to steam kinked yarn. I couldn’t see any difference in using kinked yarn versus steamed yarn. Until this project.
It made a huge difference, so I steamed out any kinks in the yarn I was using.
Suffice it to say, I’m close to finishing this second sweater vest and I’m quite pleased with how close to perfect it’s turning out. It won’t change how I knit going forward, but it’s satisfying to help complete the work of this particular knitter.
Current Knitting
Still mostly focusing on finishing the legacy sweater vests for a friend. But I have started to add a contrasting color stripe to the Honey Cowl I’m working on.
Funny enough, maybe I am changing a bit. I was considering making this cowl only as tall as the one ball of yarn would allow. But then I saw advertisements on Facebook for this cowl and the Madeline Tosh yarn it calls for, and I preferred to make it the size called for in the pattern.
Supposedly any irregularities that come from kinked yarn come out when you block it. However I’ve never had enough faith to test this out…
I just saw a blog post- can’t remember who- showing the difference in gauge using kinky yarn vs. steamed or unkinked. The difference in gauge was surprising- the kinky yarn swatch was looser and more uneven, even after blocking the swatch. so when even and smooth matter, it’s better to block the yarn to even it out. For, it depends what I’m knitting.
I really like your Honey cowl color choices. I have found that I prefer to do the rows right after cast on and before bind off as garter stitch. But that’s just a personal preference.