Hooray!! Finally!!! These bad boys are finished! Woot woot!! I would have finished these much, much sooner if I didn't hate weaving in ends so much. Some major and serious procrastination was happening with these. I would honestly weave in one end, put the project down, a few days would go by and I would come back to it, think about weaving in the ends, then decide that something else would be more fun and do that instead. A few days ago I decided I wanted these done pronto, so I bit the bullet and sat down and wouldn't allow myself to do anything else until this project was done.
When I blocked the pieces I didn't pay attention to the dimensions and so the fronts were quite longer than the backs. I was cursing myself for that 'til I realized that I would need that extra length in the front for the bulk of the knee pads, and that I needed the backs to be shorter so that when I was bending my legs I wouldn't have a build up of knitted yarn wedged in the back of my knees. I have to admit that my knee pads are bulkier than most, as I have had knee surgery before (thanks to years of classical ballet training) and now value my knees way too much to not protect them like no tomorrow. Anyways, the covers barely fit over the pads! I think a lot of this is due to my tight knitting, the tight knitting within the intarsia, and the fact that I didn't bind off loosely enough. I had also originally thought the fronts might be too long, well I was wrong. They aren't long enough! They could stand to be at least another 1"-1 1/2" longer so that they can cover the knee pad completely. Oh well. Now I know for next time! At least they are done, done, DONE!!
I took these babies out for a test skate over the weekend...I couldn't resist. It was also an opportunity to stay out in the beautiful weather some more! I won't go into major visual details here, just one last photo!
...I could go rollerskating and break in my new wheels. I've been wanting to lace up the skates and go out and peruse the giant parking lot outside my house. But alas, the weather is not cooperating! Which brings me to the photo above - it's the corner of unworn footwear. It's been raining at night here, so during the day it's not wet enough to wear the Hunters, yet it's too wet to wear the skates. Grrr....
Another thing about the photo, it reminds me of a conversation Brett and I had a few nights ago when Brett was trying to find something (I forget what it was that he was looking for) and he made a comment about how I own way too many things that are pink. I told him I love pink. Hot pink.
Brett: "Well not everything can be pink. You can't have a house full of pink."
Me: "Says who?? Why can't I have a house full of pink?? Barbie's dream house is all pink...hell, everything about Barbie is pink!"
Brett: "Yeah, well...that's Barbie. You ain't Barbie."
Me: "No. No, I'm not Barbie. I'm me, and I like pink and everything I own will be pink. You'll see. End of story."
Brett: "Ok. (At the front door rooting around the counter) What the deuce?? Why is this corner dedicated to pink and black footwear??"
Personally, I don't think I own enough pink. Anyways...today looks promising...it looks dry out...now if only those clouds that are rolling in will roll away...
I'm still plugging away at the knee pad covers. I worked up the backs, and am in the process of getting second front done. I think I would've been done earlier if I hadn't frogged the heart on the first front so many times. I just didn't like how I was working the intarsia pattern. The first time I frogged it, I didn't like how the stitches of the heart looked so tightly knitted compared to the rest of the front. The heart itself was starting to "bubble" in the middle and the edges looked too separated from the rest of the piece. The second frogging happened cause I was doing the normal knit to the color change, drag that yarn in the back 'til I needed it again. I didn't like how the backside looked so messy and gross. Not to mention that the carried over yarn didn't allow for much of a stretch in the first place and when it didn't stretch it distorted the heart shape. I needed the allowance of the stretching ability in the heart as this was going to be a piece that just pulls over the store bought knee pads. So I tried to re-knit the intarsia but this time leaving more slack in the carried over yarn to help the piece stretch more. Yeah...that just looked even uglier and more messy than before, and didn't really help out with the stretching issue. Then the thought hit me: what if I was careless in putting these on and the dragged over yarn got caught on something? Ugh.
I had an internal argument about whether or not to leave it this way. But a feeling in my gut won and I knew I had to figure out a way to do the intarsia so that it could stretch without ruining the design and would also look clean in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Who's going to see the back?? Well, I'll see and I'll know! Anyways, I had no idea what to do, as I have only done intarsia work a few times...and those projects were tiny things like wristbands. Yet this is the only way I knew how to do intarsia and the only method I had come across in all my books and on the web. I am so glad that Google exists!
There were various websites but none had any decent visuals...until I came across a tutorial on The Purl Bee site. Of course!!! Why didn't I think of going there in the first place?? I love that website, and always check it every second day. I'm rolling my eyes at myself for this one. After much examination of the photos and tips provided, I re-did the heart. And YAY!!! It worked out!! I'm so proud of myself!!! And the back is just so clean!! I was seriously jumping with glee at that. How sad, I know. The best part of it all? I learned something new!
Anyways, I need to keep plugging away. I'm so close to finishing! Well, the knitting part at least. The next part is the step that I hate the most: weaving in the ends. I always try to find ways to knit/crochet something so that I don't have to weave in ends later.
I decided that after this project is finished I'm going to give the crochet driving gloves another go. I won't be able to go to my knitting night tomorrow :( Brett will be working really late and in an attempt to save money we're trying to avoid ordering take-aways, which we normally do on Fridays cause that's when Brett's entire week catches up with him, when I'm at my knitting night, and Brett is alone with the munchkin for a few hours. So I'm going to see if I can make it three for three and make dinner again tomorrow night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Brett won't have to work late again next Friday...I always feel so guilty for missing too many knit nights!
I've decided to take a break from the crochet driving gloves and do something knitted for a while. Y'know, to mix things up, to spice my life up. So what have I decided to work on? Knitted knee pad covers! And yes, they are going to be in my favorite color combo: hot pink and black! They are to match my rollerskates:
Well, the ones pictured above aren't mine, but it's a picture of the ones that I had bought eons ago and still need to be unpacked (they are sitting somewhere in the 3 huge bags full of shoes in the living room closet). I have also recently purchased some new toe guards that look much, much, much better than my current ones, which are straight up black and stick out at the sides way too much. They just look darn ugly. My new ones are such a huge improvement:
I got them on etsy from dandelionfactory. Aren't they just the coolest? I love how they don't stick out like sore thumbs on the sides! And the best part, they have hot pink stars on them! I can't wait to do some skating this summer! My goal is to get good enough so that I can try out for either the Victoria Rollergirls or the Eves of Destruction. Wish me luck!
But 'til that day comes, all I can do is dream up my derby name (any suggestions anyone?) and knit myself some cool knee pad covers. I'm sure I'll need them to cover up the ugliness once the summer is over! I'll keep y'all updated...on both the outcome of the covers and my derby success! ;)
