Reading, Knitting and Failing Better

First day of Me-Made-May! I woke up in my Lola nightie and then pulled on a me-made white tank. I'm back in my homestate and the past few days have been chock full of family and cooking and cleaning and little ones. When I can I've been checking into the blogosphere and loving all the PJs and the MMM preps! 

To continue on with my mini-red wardrobe: The Knitted Beret 

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. 

—Beckett

So I haven't been showing you much of my knitting because I've been failing at it a lot. In all their glory: a thrice cast-on baby hat in blue for a December 2011 baby, a failed red beret in January, a quarter-made top-down mock-turtleneck in black from January, and a bottom-up maroon sweater made from January to March, with the world's ugliest neckline.

This surprisingly hasn't rankled me too much. A lifelong reader, I'd fallen off the wagon these past two years—work and anxiety made it hard for me to sit still. So there was sewing, but that's a consuming affair. But knitting, forgiving knitting, became the carrot that enticed me back to books. 

Reading

Once I committed knit and purl stitches to muscle memory, I fired up my e-reader and started plowing through books. When I cast on the black turtleneck, I opened Wuthering Heights. I'd read—and disliked it—as a teenager (just get together, already, Catherine and Heathcliff! I'd say).

And as I worked my way through the maroon sweater, I finished Bronte's novel, picked up Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness, then a friend's novella, then Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. I cast off while reading Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus. In terms of nonfiction, I finished Joy of Less by Francine Jay and Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston—both helped immensely in my desire to have less.

And finally, the red beret for my mini-red wardrobe. 

In this hat is the last thrilling chapters of Night Circus and the beginning of Tea Obrecht's The Tiger's Wife. Not to mention many short stories and essays in between. I suspect Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is next.

I long for that moment when I'm so enraptured by the story that I seriously consider calling in sick so I can sit at home and read. Knitting gives me the patience to sit through the beginning of a story, before I've attached to the characters, not to mention the boring and slow bits (the younger Cathy wore on me, she did).

Failing Better

I sometimes wish I was the type of person that could endlessly work at something until it was perfect. In fact, there's a lot that's not perfect about my new red beret—it could be a bit tighter and less slouchier—but I like it all the same. In knitting, I could rip it out and start again, but I'm much more inclined to "fail better" on the next project.

Through all this knitting, I've learned:

• How to calculate gauge from my RTW sweaters/hats
• Working with cotton vs. wool (I can see what all the fuss is about with wool!)
• How to pick up dropped stitches (I just purchased the book Knit Fix—worth its weight in gold)
• I like working with interchangeable needles
• For mindless knitting in the round, I like metal needles for speed
• Sweaters may be too large of a project for me, I lose steam
• How to knit on two circular needles for a small circumference (though I don't really like it)
• I'm afraid of DPNs
• I really like knitting hats

To the last point, and inspired by Roobeedoo who churned out many lovelies from this book, I just purchased Weekend Hats.

I think I'm ready to start branching out beyond stockinette endlessly in the round, so I thought this book might be a good introduction to simple lace work and color work. I'm a bit worried that it might interfere with my reading (having to constantly look down at the needles), but I'm excited about the possibilities!

Speaking of failing better, I'm also applying my hoarding-lessons from sewing to knitting. I'm allowing myself to buy any knitting supplies I want, providing they fit in this box:

I wish I had some yarn on me now—I'm penning this as my 8-month-old niece naps but here in the tropics, yarn stores are rare and far away from where I grew up. Sigh. 

I'm curious though: Are there nearly-mindless knitting projects you recommend for reading?