Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dishcloth Review

When last we left our Intrepid Knitter, she had cautiously announced the start of a new project.  As she has had a rather ridiculous amount of difficulty with patterns of this nature since starting the blog and knitting publicly, she opted to go with the stealth approach.  The project goes by the code name: Dishcloth (with sleeves).

I have had exactly one successful sweater come off the needles since I started blogging.  This is due to The Dreaded Blog Sweater Curse and it is not something to be taken lightly.  Dark forces are at work here.  The last completed sweater went before the blogging audience back in the summer months so I thought that it might be a good idea to review the rules.  

Well...there was that little sweater that I knit for Great Nephew Sheep.  I almost hit the mark with that one.  But somewhere between casting on and reaching the neckline, the little booger outgrew it.  I think I would have actually had a winner had my niece not seen fit to give birth to Super Baby...

I think I've tempted fate enough with the set-up here.  Let's all start treading a bit more lightly.  The dark forces have been very much in evidence, you see.  I have already experienced a twisted cast-on and a mysterious hole which proved highly resistant to repair.  Following that, the knitting became twisted again.  You can see where I might be just a wee bit a-scairt at this point.  Why don't we go ahead and discuss those rules I mentioned earlier?

Sheepish Annie's Ritual Words With Which To Foil The Dark Forces Who Hate It When She Knits Things With Sleeves (patent pending):

1.  The item is question is, henceforth, to be referred to as "The Dishcloth."  Dishcloth knitting is perfectly acceptable to the dark forces.  

2.  Photographic evidence will be limited and sporadic.  Once you put something out there on the inter-webs, it is forever and for all.  The dark forces spend a great deal of time Googling.

3.  The "dishcloth" may go away, never to be mentioned again.  We accept this and do not question where it went.  We will all know where it went.  We will be too polite to mention it lest the knitter go mad with sorrow and stain her entire stash with tears.

4.  Should the "dishcloth" come to fruition, there will be great celebrating and comments are expected.  There will be some thumbing of noses at the dark forces, but let's not get carried away.  We may want to knit another "dishcloth" someday and the dark forces have very long memories.  They hold a grudge.  


I hope that these rules are clear and that we can all agree to abide by them until the dishcloth knitting is done.  And by "done" I mean for better or for worse.  I believe I have already mentioned the pitfalls that lie ahead, not the least of which being the limited supply of yarn.  I may not even be able to finish this thing even if the dark forces are off enjoying Spring Break at some moderately priced hotel in Florida...

This situation, of course, leaves me with little in the way of visuals, at least in the knitterly sense of the word.  Sadly, I now have to resort to the Panda Cam widget.  Sorry.  Those of you who cannot bear another image from the San Diego Zoo are excused so you can go somewhere for a cup of coffee and talk about my panda obsession in deliciously snide tones.  I'm cool with that.  I'll probably even join you later to chime in.  I do love a good dish-session!

Just leave the pandas out of it, 'kay?

Happily, the pandas were rather active last night.  They were all cute and playful which is just how I like my pandas.


Awww....


Of course this happy domestic scene degenerated to some degree shortly after I did the screen capture.  There was a bit of a tussle over what I can only imagine was a rather choice stalk of bamboo.  It seemed pretty good-natured, though.  At least I think so.  Pandas always sort of look like they are smiling so it can be hard to tell.  

In fact, the next time I checked, I kind of wondered if maybe the whole thing had been more serious than I'd originally thought.  I hate to believe this, but it very well may be that someone pressed charges.  


Panda Jail.  


It actually looks more like the drunk tank, but I simply cannot bear the thought of a panda hitting rock bottom like that.  I choose to believe that this was more of a misunderstanding and that all the pandas have a solid understanding of what constitutes social drinking.  Otherwise, I don't think I could concentrate on anything else.

Actually, now that I think of it, that could maybe account for the weird hole in the dishcloth...

SA

10 comments:

PICAdrienne said...

Good luck with the dishcloth. I am assuming it is not the traditional cotton, as the last full size dish cloth was made with stuff from the dollar store. Is this dish cloth made with more 'natural' materials, than the last? We all know dishcloths can be made of linen or cotton or hemp, perhaps you are making a hot pad, which should be wool.

Anonymous said...

If the Dark Forces seem to be hovering a bit close, just change the title to hot pad, as PICA suggests. That'll fool 'em.

Kath said...

Just think of it as a Panda Time-Out, or Someone Spending Time In The Naughty Panda Chair. Because one can certainly imagine pandas being a bit naughty from time to time.

I accept the rules and fully support you in your efforts not to attract the attention of the dark forces to your dishcloth in progress. Perhaps someday I will be courageous enough to attempt a dishcloth!

Anonymous said...

Wool also makes a nifty tea cosy, should the forces sniff too closely.

Anonymous said...

I've read the rules and agree to abide by them until the completion of the dishcloth.

This Weary Traveler said...

I went on a tear last year refusing to make the sleeves for the "dishclothes with sleeves" resulting in many tanks and shells that make me happy. Now I'm on a do the sleeves first kick that has gotten me through three "dishclothes" without losing my mind.

I'm in love with bears. Panda, koala, brown, black, grizzly. Plus that commercial that Noah Wyle does about polar bears has me trying to convince my husband we should adopt one. God knows it's plenty cold enough here.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the dishcloth. Hopefully just the start was a bit bumpy.

sheep#100 said...

I showed some local non-knitting type peeps the yarn for the Dishcloth currently under consideration here. They agree with the blog that I should venture forth, braving new avenues of color palette. Now, I need to decide which size. I hear that the front panels of the Dishcloth are very unforgiving with respect to the whole blocking thing. It's the cables, of course.

I'm sort of starting to think again about a Dishcloth in the round but then you have that whole twisting and holey thing...

Knitting Linguist said...

I'm a little behind on blog reading because of my own battles with a dishcloth, but I'm glad to hear that you're taking the risk, walking on the wild side, going for the dishcloth knitting again. I also love the pictures from the panda cam; I'm a little attached to those guys, I swear it's why we keep our zoo membership current, just so we can pop in and look at them from time to time.

Bells said...

I know just what you mean about putting it out there. I started a shawl a while back that, when I decided i wanted to cheat on it and knit another shawl, I wondered what the blog readers would say? Would they think 'oh but what about the blue shawl' and assume I was some sort of slapper?

No one has mentioned it. But I do wish I hadn't put it out there still!