My brain hurts

It could be the cold, but I don't think so.

So, I had this fun idea of using up some leftover Fangasia yarn to make some fingerless mitts in a pattern that will echo the fang motif in the Love Bites scarf.  I planned to alternate rows of the Fangasia colorway with rows of plain black silver sock yarn (if you can call "silver sock yarn" plain).  This may be the worst idea ever!  Not because the colors aren't working out.  Nope.  They look fine.  Not even because I can only knit one at a time.  I have gotten used to doing two things (socks & mitts, not sweaters or hats!) at the same time, but these should go quickly. Right?  Little mitts?

Gah!  I'm doing the mitts on two circs, as usual.  But the pattern has all these YOs and K2tog right where the stitches start or stop on my needles.  A yarn over at the end of one row, then switch yarns for the next row is very challenging in the round.  At least, it is for me, and I'm worried that there will be a big, gaping hole in one spot of the glove.  That would not be pretty.  The K2togs keep happening when I have one stitch left on the end of the needle, so I keep moving them around every other row. Pfffffft.  I'm not enjoying this at all.

Yes, I know.  No one is making me do them.  But I want the mitts in this colorway.  This is the only way to get them.  I suppose I could hurt my brain further by seriously moving stitches around to try to adjust where the starts and stops are, but, hey do you smell smoke?  I don't know.  It is just rare for me to get off to such a very bad start with a project (deliberately ignores the disasterous Pi Shawl start). 

Perhaps starting the project while the girls were at dance class wasn't the best idea.  I was seriously distracted by the number of kids going in and out of the room leaving the door open with the music blasting and the teacher counting!  How was I supposed to count independently of her?  That doesn't usually happen, though, and I have spent many, many hours knitting there without any problems at all.  No.  It is just this pattern/project.  I actually started out thinking I could manage to do both mitts at the same time.  That would be FOUR bits of yarn to track , keep in the correct order, etc.  See?  Flat. Out. Crazy.

As it is, I will undoubtedly rip out the four completed rows and give it another go at home in relative quiet.  If it is still such a struggle, I'll reconsider the pattern, or my alternating yarn.  I could just try to do one in the yarn I have left and see if it is enough. I know it will be very, very close, but which side of completion is the sticky bit.  Will I have just enough, or barely not enough?  Is it worth the effort and time to knit it with the one yarn and see how far I get?  Will I rip it all and do it again with two yarns if it doesn't work? 

Yeah.  I don't know, so I thought I'd just make it "easy" on myself by using both yarns from the start.  Mitts are usually a traveling sort of project.  I can work on them anywhere.  Perhaps not this time.  I'll have to find something else to carry around.

I'm also working on a cross stitch quilt square.  Still.  I have never, EVER, had this much trouble with a simple cross stitch square in my life.  E.V.E.R.  I have had to re-work 3 out of 4 major motifs, not just once, but multiple times. Each.  Then I get to the "easy" part (should be) and find that one of the motifs is short by a stitch, and I had to rip the whole thing (single motif) out and re-work it.  Again.  sigh  Perhaps I'm just distracted, or something.  I don't know.  The due date for the square was last Sunday, but we had an unoffical extension to this Sunday.  Good thing.  It will take me that long to correct all the errors in this puppy.  (And, yes, you could tell that there was an error in all instances.) 

I'm trying not to let myself work on much else until I get this thing finished.  However, I have been doing lots of Pi Shawl work before bed (on the nights where there's time for that).  I'm halfway through the last pattern repeat!  I find it ironic that after struggling so long with this project, it is now the easiest thing I'm working on. 

Oh, well.  Nothing like uncertainty to keep you on your toes, right?

And now, after all that whining, some yummy, happy fiber!  This is locally dyed BFL in the colorway Dawn In Paris by Auntie Karen & Co.  I picked up 8 oz at the LYS and can't wait to get to it.  The dyer does not seem to have her own website or anything, just a local who sells through the LYS.  That's fine with me.  I also picked up 4 oz of this nice bit of BFL in Black Forest Cake.  Same artist, same store.  Black Friday sales can be good. I wasn't expecting to be out shopping, but Himself had me helping with a project of his and we ended up right around the corner from the LYS, so there was no real reason not to go.  I have no idea what I'll do with either of them, though I'm thinking a scarf for the Dawn in Paris.  Maybe a hat for the Black Forest I want these colors very, very visible!  Too yummy!