Head banging

It's a little frustrating when you anticipate something being one way and it goes the other way.

"Examples?", you say? I shall supply.

~ Some will remember back to when we moved into this apartment last November and I had to buy a new floor lamp for the livingroom. I'll gladly admit I was never very cranked up about the new lamp but even if I wasn't crazy about the style I did at least expect it to work for longer than a few months.

It's had a stick up it's lampy ass anyway - the reading lamp part has never worked and on a couple occasions it would brighten without cause and then dim again. Or maybe it dimmed and brightened again. Anyway, late this afternoon when I turned it on it began to make a droning sound - the sort of sound you'd get if you crossed a mosquito with a remote controlled model airplane. Being as I'm so clever I turned the lamp off - sort of an attempt at a lamp reboot - and naturally it didn't come back on. I'm guessing the bulb is shot but it could also be that the lamp is a general piece of crap. Sure, I could return it to the store but I have no idea where the receipt is and they'll just exchange it anyway. I have no desire to have another lamp just waiting to crap out on me.

I'm down to having to use the overhead light. The overhead light that consists of four very bright, high intensity bulbs. My livingroom now has all the charm of a jewelry store and I think it's beginning to burn my scalp.

~ Hooray for me! I am finished with my Knitting Olympics project! Look for me to post a photo of it tomorrow. Yesterday I spent most of my afternoon and all of the evening hours knitting until my arms ached and my fingertips were numb. The baby blanket is finished! Yay me! Bring on the gold medal! And you know what else?

It's shite. Complete shite.

It's not just my knitting. The little errors - the knitting equivilent of a two footed landing in figure skating - can be fixed. Sloppy, loose stitches can be tightened. Lumpiness can be done away with when it's blocked. It's something else. It's supposed to be a baby blanket but it's just...just...wrong!

First, this pattern I used is crap. Badly written, typos, errors and numbskull me should have known better than to use a pattern that didn't include the gauge. I was so seduced by the photo of the finished project that I forged ahead anyway.

Second, this blanket is ridiculously wide. Hell, the damn thing covers me, nevermind an infant! And it's heavy. You lay this on a baby and the baby will be fighting for breath.

I could possibly frog it and knit something else but it's knit with two strands held together - just like the pattern told me to do! - and I have never had any success ripping apart knitting with two strands. It always turns into a tangled mess and it causes me to say bad, bad, bad words. I mean words worse than the normal bad, bad, bad words that I say. Therefore I've decided that it's not meant to be a baby blanket at all but it shall be a throw for me. It's just the right size to drape over my shoulders should I get chilly and it's so heavy that it won't easily slip off.

Unfortunately it also means that once again I have failed in producing a baby blanket for my friend Zea's new baby. I can't get the yarn and pattern thing together in the right combination but I'm determined to try again if it means Zea's baby is going to have to use it on her baby.

I think I'm making this too hard. There are a million baby blanket patterns out there and I'm just not matching up the right yarn available to me with a pattern I can stand to knit. It's starting to get ridiculous especially since I could just get yarn I like and make my own pattern.

Reckon I'll go find buy some more yarn tomorrow since I've got to go buy a lamp anyway.