Sweet spot update

[redhedlvr2]

I've spent the last week knitting my wee knitterly fingers to the bone it seems.  And although I'm going to chalk this past week up to progress, I do have to say I have nothing to show for my efforts.  It has become obvious to me that HALF of the sock yarn I bought last week will not produce the incredible stacking and pooling effects that this afghan requires.

To be more specific, I started with this yarn.  The colors in this pic aren't true at all.  I find the yarn itself to be very pretty and will save for another SOCK yarn afghan I've been seeing around.  But for this project, it's just not working out.  And on the subject, tell me, what kind of masochist knits an afghan out of sock yarn anyway?

Here's the lowdown.  With a #2 needle, I cast on 64 stitches and worked the pattern, which is extremely easy and the swatch worked up quickly.  It did become apparent after about an inch that the desired pattern wasn't working so, as per the directions, I first increased by two stitches, knit for another inch, increased two more, knit for an inch.  Nadda.  I frogged the whole thing and repeated with a #1 needle.  Still no joy.  At that point, I ripped the whole thing out again and cast on with only 54 stitches, wash, rinse repeat as above.

My conclusion is this.  Sock yarn that will produce a "wider" solid stripe with jacquard patterning will not work.  It is possible that I have not hit the sweet spot, but I believe the nature of that thicker/wider stripe won't allow for the zig-zagging pattern that was intended.

Did I mention that I don't own any straight knitting needles other than double points?  Have I also mentioned that 64 stitches is too long to hold safely on a double point without some stitches falling off the back side?  My solution?  I rooted around in the kitchen junk drawer searching for a rubber band I could cut in half and wrap around the needles as sort of a point protector.  No rubber bands were in the drawer but there was an unopened pair of squishy ear plugs that I jammed onto the ends and have worked quite well.

The things we do for our craft, right?

I sent this from my phone to my yahoo email because for some reason I couldn't get it to go to my gmail email.  See what I mean?

Comments

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Go darkside human/cyborg. Male because the voice actor's voice is tailor made for that part. Just yummy!

I was afraid at first too. I have always like healing although I've never been a great healer, so it was a bit daunting at first. Also I'd never played a rogue before, which is what playing an operative is like. It's been great fun so far, but I want to try something a little different next time around.

When I was playing my smuggler>gunslinger, I got very tired of always having to roll into cover. Plus I seemed to be dieing quite a bit. So I was either not playing right, or the class just wasn't for me. Who knows.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

IDK. I'm really liking the VA as a lightsider, to be honest. It's kind of hilarious in that the character really comes off as being slightly needy and just not quite getting why he is stuck dealing with so much abuse (although he keeps coming back for more, so I suspect he secretly likes it). The character feels like one of those dogs who keeps coming up to people who hate dogs and wagging its tail, with a look on its face that says, "I know you hate dogs, but if you only knew how awesome we were, you'd love us. And I am the one who will show you the way!" Poor Quixotic. He is in for some major disappointments.

But, yeah, being a really nasty human seems pretty entertaining. (Plus, I've already decided that humans are the jerk race of Star Wars, so am letting all my evil characters be human, which is great fun.)

I was always an okay healer, but I find DPS to be so much more fun. Just melee scares me for some reason. Unsure why, seeing as I've played melee DPS both in games and table top just...IDK. I think if I'm getting up close and personal with something that can kill me, I want to be wearing armor!

Cover is kind of a finicky mechanism. I find it great fun, but there are definitely some "Oh $#@!" moments. And gunslingers/snipers do die a lot. It's something one has to accept when playing a glass canon. (Like, if you don't set up the encounter just right, you die. It is what it is.) I kind of wish that death penalties were lighter for super squishy classes when they weren't in raids. It sucks to be like, "Damn, I missed a pat. Oh well...7K repair bill." on Mutive. Oh well. I guess the good thing about the companions is that I can often leave them to die. (Although I suspect that Lokin hates my guts. Oh well. When he respects/loves me better than the Minister of Intelligence, I'll stop leaving him to die. WE TOTALLY HAVE A DEAL.)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

When the going gets tough, I haul ass outta town. Hee he And Corso just was NOT helping matters. That boy and I need a long talk.

I agree with the setting up the encounter thing too. I'll know as soon as the first shot is fired. At least as a healer I have the option to drop out of actual combat and heal my companion. Also the stuns are very nice. I have two that I use all the time, but don't use flash grenade much. Usually I have something CC'd and don't want to break it. This is all solo stuff, which is how I usually play.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

HAh hah hah. That is totally my smuggler's way of thinking. Only way to live! But, yeah, Corso has issues. Which apparently only get worse if you have a relationship with him and insist on sleeping with everyone else, from what I've heard. It sounds so hilarious. (Plus, it'll be nice having an imaginary boyfriend who notices. Yes, Vector, you're being talked about.)

Although ever since I've heard that you can sleep with the villain, get Corso jealous, insult the villain's performance, then kill him, I've been rather keen on smuggler. OMG, must level!!!!

Yeah, stuns and heals really help with encounters. With that said, I did play a fire mage, so am pretty used to the basic mechanics. You figure out where you're going to attack from, use your most powerful attack first (ambush/pyroblast) straight at the weakest enemy, cc whatever is strongest, then blast the rest with a moderately powerful fast attack (fireball/snipe and arcane bolt/series of shots). It's pretty rinse repeat. Just if you hit a pat and/or accidentally hit two mobs, you're screwed. Then again, leveling goes *so* fast as you can take down mobs really quickly as long as you're careful to avoid hitting more than one at a time.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh Corso. Don't you just want to corrupt him in some sort of way? Iread some comment somewhere about being a Sith Smuggler and using the shock collar on him. How twisted is that?

Ok, sorry. Back to reality now.

Do you realize, we can start with any topic and bring it around to Star Wars?

[mutive.livejournal.com]

We're like magic. ;)

I totally want to corrupt Corso. I seriously think he needs it, although more likely, he's going to be cheated on, then dumped with a baby on some wretched planet as smuggler goes off to party. Oh well. *sigh* And the sad part is, he'll keep thinking that someday she's going to come back for him...

OMG, a sith smuggler with a shock collar sounds...sort of horrible and sort of awesome at the same time. You should totally post that to the kmeme and see if someone goes wild with it.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Lol! That may be where I found it. It certainly wasn't my idea. The few sith I have started have never used the thing.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

My SW has been using poor Vette as a way of getting more DS points. With that said, I'm not going to respect that poor little twi'lek until she attempts to murder my SW in her sleep. (Which would be doing the world such a favor!)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh poor Vette!

[mutive.livejournal.com]

I'd feel more sorry for her if she actually tried to kill my SW. Seriously, someone needs to stop her, Vette knows where she sleeps. That she's not trying speaks to a serious lack of ambition on her part.