'Always knit in adequate light. It is much easier to work either bright daylight or good task lighting' - Erika Knight
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| Photography by Zoë Bull Hipstamatic App for iPod Touch |
One other reason why I started this blog was because it was at a time where I couldn't knit very much and I wanted to express my creative frustration about knitting. However, the reason I couldn't knit, or had to limit myself knitting was because of a beginners mistake.
No, it's not about the uneven tension these days or loosing my place, it's about how I was knitting in low light and not really being aware of how much that would matter. I normally knit with 4.5mm needles and when I get going I can knit a lot at time. When I knitted my mug cosy, I used 5mm needles, they were really long but I could see well and I could knit as much and as often as I wanted. Then I knitted with 3.25 mm needles. (These are all UK sizes)
I won't tell you what I'm creating, but you can see here how thin this wool is in comparison to the thicker sizes. The spectrum of colour was even more of an attractive trait for this project and sometimes I just like to wake up, put my lamp on, punch myself up in bed and go, go, go. When I had a spare minute I would sit on my floor and knit, knit, knit.
Sometimes my mum would come in 'It's a bit dark in here', which I disagreed to, but that was only because my eyes were used to it. I will mention now, that I have not been knitting in pitch black. I would knit in day time, but there wasn't much sun coming into my room at that time.
And because I was enjoying myself so much with this new project, I pushed, and I pushed…my sight until my head really complained with a massive headache. This headache from pushing myself for about a week, last a further three weeks and is just about leaving.
Straining your eyes is not a good idea. I thought going to the opticians would save me and maybe it was a sign I needed glasses. No, my eyes were perfect. 'Just take plenty of breaks.' they advised. I have got admit I was quite disappointed and had to learn the hard way. I couldn't watch tv for long, or look at a screen, phone or computer, and it just wasn't fun and it just wasn't worth it what I had been through.
For the past couple of days I have been coaxing myself back into my colourful project, but taking a row at a time and just completing two rows within a session and being fine with that. It came to mind that I had two pairs of spare needles that weren't in use. I decided to find some projects in my knitting books that used 5mm or 4mm needles, and I did.
Why did I do this? Well, my eyes and head don't hurt half as bad hurt when with 4mm and I feel more at home with it. It doesn't mean to say that I am going to abandon my 3mm needle project but that it will just take a little longer and will be more of an achievement when I have finished it.
So far I have knitted 22 rows of my colourful project and this is the third time I have had to re-do it. There is probably about 60+ in total. If it means starting again at times, then so be it.
I am never into the idea of working on two projects at once, but in this case it makes quite a lot of sense to have two different knitting projects - quick, easy and fast and slow and fiddily with patience required.
I'll be posting them up when each of them are done and photographed.
Just remember having that extra light on can make such a difference and won't have to interrupt you creative projects.
Happy Knitting!
Zoë
