Knitters block.

This past month has not been good for knitting. I managed to get a set of placemats made for a wedding gift, but everything else I touch goes horribly wrong. Of course I forgot to snap a quick picture before wrapping it :( The socks I was making for my husband are a mess! The pattern just didn't have enough stretch to it to compensate for the cotton yarn. I don't even want to look at the orange dress anymore with all the problems I've had with it. I am having issues shaping the top :/ I have reknit that top at least 4 times. I am trying a very simple approach now, but it's looking like I may have to go an entirely different route with the top of the dress.

I have never really had problems shaping garments as I knit. I am a pretty good progress knitter and do most of my knitting this way. I just seem to be stuck in a bit of "knitters block" if such a thing even exists. This has been quite frustrating and is sucking the joy out of knitting. I may need to make something from a pattern just to feel like I can knit again.

I will be working on the orange dress again today, though I don't have much hope for it going well. Would it be too weird to knit the bodice from the top down, then join it to the skirt? If this attempt doesn't work any better than before, I may consider making the top separately. I will be so glad when the dress is finally finished. It is such a large project, so will be nice to have it complete. Obviously I won't be wearing it to a wedding (wedding was nearly 3 months ago) but will take some pictures.

Besides the orange dress I don't really have any projects going. I am done messing with the socks for my husband. I will reuse the yarn to make socks, but I am still too upset to do that now, lol I saw a really cute baby blanket on Knit Picks website, but can't spend the money on the yarn right now. I have random scraps of yarn that I should find a way to use up. I have an afghan stored away that needs finished still. It was a crochet afghan I had nearly finished several years ago. I really should finish that someday. Speaking of crocheting, maybe I should just crochet the top of that orange dress. It would be much easier to control the shaping and make a much more drastic increase without it looking bizarre. How sad I didn't think of this before, and frankly a bit embarrassing...

Wish me luck, I need it!