Look closely

I know that it is easy to get distracted by the two cute little boys in the picture, but can you see the knitting?

There was a time when I couldn't get them to look at a camera to save my life.  Not anymore.

Now if they see a camera, I hear demands:  "Mommy, take a picture of me!"  :Mommy, can I see the picture?"  Mommy, mommy, mommy!

Can you see the sock that Mickey is wearing?  Charity sock in progress.  Over three inches in the past month, a couple rows at a time.  My current briefcase knitting.

Socks on two circulars really is the perfect briefcase knitting.  I can stop at any time, with seconds notice, whenever the attorney/judge I am waiting on is ready.  One ball of yarn, compact, and no instructions necessary.

I knit the sock, and the charity finds a child to fit it.

Today, it is all about the models charity.

Will you have enough yarn?

That was the question of the evening at Knittervention last night?  For me, at least.

It was a small group last night, only four of us.  And we were breaking in a new waitress, but she was an admitted hooker (the crochet variety, not a prostitute), so there was speedy fiber bonding.  Give us a few more months, and we will have her coming in on her night off to learn how to knit.

It took every minute I was there, but I met my goal for the evening.  (Apparently, for once, I had a realistic knitting goal.)  I finished the first long side and rounded the corner.  I am officially on the downward slope of the edge.

I still have no idea if I will have enough yarn.  I have 60% to 70% of one skein, and around 50% of another skein left.

Halfway done with the edge.

At the risk of repeating myself, I HAVE to have enough yarn, because I can't get more of this and I have to have enough yarn.

Today, it is all about enough.

The long silence

I know that it has been a long time since I blogged.  It has been a long time since I have done any significant knitting also.  Since this is a knitting blog, the two kind of go hand in hand.  Sometimes, life just gets in the way of important things like knitting.

I have finished the second row on the Pink Ruffle scarf, Take 2.  Look at the pictures of Take 1.  Right now, there is no difference between the two.

I am close to the halfway point on the edge of Fuchsia Wave.  The halfway point should tell me. . . absolutely nothing about the yarn yardage.  I have accepted that I am simply blundering forward with blind faith and denial, certain that knitting would not betray me like that.  Knitting would not let me run out of yarn that close to the end.  Knitting would let me run out of a yarn I cannot possibly find more, even if I searched the far reaches of the internet and the four corners of Ravelry.  Knitting has been my faithful companion these eighteen years.  Knitting wouldn't do that to me.

Today, it is all about the certainty.

A Two Pint Night

Yesterday was a doosey.  One of those days when I was hit with one thing after another at the office.  I get back from court, and a client had scheduled a last minute appointment for as soon as I walked in the door.  As soon as he left, a random person wandered in asking about a divorce.  I barely had enough time to sort through the mail, between  phone calls, before I was off to court again.  I had two out of three hearings in front of that Judge, and my hearings ran late, which has a cascade effect.  The last hearing ended at 5:45.  I was supposed to pick up my kids by 5, so there I was texting my Sweetie in the middle of my court hearing. 

Rush home, get organized, give kids baths, blah, blah.  By the time I got to Knittervention, I was ready for a pint of cider, knitting and a few laughs.  Even though we book the little room every other week, there were three people there.  Three people that had already consumed whatever they had ordered, and were just sitting there talking.  Three people that were obviously not fazed at all as knitter after knitter arrived, paused at the doorway in confusion, then crammed close together trying to avoid poking each other with long pointy sticks. 

The invaders finally left after 45 minutes, and within seconds we had the tables bussed, wiped and had spread ourselves out.  That was when I ordered the second pint.

While everything else was going to pot, the knitting was going well.  I brought Fuchsia Wave, and was going like gangbusters on the edge.  While I have no specific memory, empirical blog or Ravelry entries, or pictoral proof, starting the new skein for the edge prep rows sounds like something I would do. 

I am reasonably certain that I will have enough yarn.  Or I am suffering from severe fiber denial that will result in tears, swear words, and self-depreciating blog posts.  And maybe a three pint night, ending with the cab ride home. 

Today, it is all about denial certainty.  
 

Except . . . .

When I started the edge, I had two and a half skeins of yarn left.  I have now used up one skein, and completed one short side of the edge, and 2/3 of one long side.

This is not enough yarn to finish.

Except. . . .Did I start the new skein at the perpendicular edge?  Or did I start it with the four prep rows around the entire circumference of the shawl?

If that skein include four prep rows, then I am fine.

If not, then I am totally screwed.

I don't remember when I started the skein.

I am going to risk it.

Today, it is all about the lack of memory.

Comfort Knitting

Usually knitting is my calorie-free comfort food from the stress and trials of daily life.  These days, it feels like I need another sort of comfort from my knitting.

After the crash and burn of the pink ruffle scarf, I needed worry-free, familiar, surely-nothing-will-go-wrong sort of knitting.   I have a new charity child's sock in my briefcase.  I have finished a few rows on Big Purple, the giant endless aphgan for my mother in law.  I have worked on the cuffs of my Sweetie's hunting mittens, though, since these are the second set to match the fraternal twin (as opposed to identical twin) first set, that is of dubious worry reducing value. 

I have not re-started the pink ruffle scarf yet.  I plan to, and I know what I am going to do different, I just haven't started doing the different yet.

I have not even touched Fuchsia Wave, as the potential for yarn shortage so close after throwing away yarn could drive me right over the edge.

My oldest son, Bugaboo is starting school next week.  I am the mother of a kindergartener.  For the first time, I am in the rush of back to school shopping, coordinating and planning.  Dress codes, school clothes, handbooks, oh my!  Doodlebug starts pre-school in two weeks, so I fund myself with the a new supplies list as soon as I completed the first supplies list.

I would say that I look forward to the relative calm of the office, except that it is custody season, so I have the flurry of battles and court that all seem to be scheduled for the next two weeks.

Today it is all about the need for comfort.   

Disaster in Pink

I have cast off enough stitches to see the overall flow of the ruffled scarf. . . . I hate it.  The ruffles are too full.  Way too full.   I was trying to make a scarf, not a very short  tutu.

Really, there is no room for my  neck!

This makes casting off the remaining couple thousand stitches a very painful proposition.

Though, why would I do that?  I am not going to wear the scarf as it is.  I wouldn't even feel right giving it away to charity.

I can't rip out, because the yarn is a fine mohair blend.  I still like the idea of a ruffled scarf out of this yarn, and I still have about five miles of it left on the cone.

I just need to fix the pattern.  I am thinking no more than half the increases, and double the stockinette rows in between increases.

So it is decided.  I will (gasp!) cut the yarn, and throw the scarf away.  I hate to waste yarn, but I am calling it a yarn sacrifice in the name of knitting experience.

Ever notice that experience is simply the name we give our mistakes?

Today, it is all about the, um, experience.