Missing Title

I had the perfect blog title.  Knittervention was the other night, and Cassie made a punny about my shawl.  My first thought was "remember that comment, it is perfect for the blog."  And by the time I was driving home, I realized that I had forgotten it.

Something about the edge and  anxiety about the yarn left. . . feeling edgy about knitting the edge. . . .No, it is gone.

Sorry, I will just update the numbers.  13 inches of edge completed.  45 inches of edge remaining.  Two partial balls of yarn remaining.

Today, it is all about the missing.  

Fall into Shawl Weather

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.  In our house, it is usually a day of laundry.  Fun activities on Saturday, housework on Sunday.  In between the darks and the reds, I can usually sneak in a few lines of knitting. 

Yesterday was no exception, and I have several more inches of Fuchsia edging to show for it.  9 inches down on the last long side completed.  Approximately 60 inches to go.  Usually, I delight in every pull from the skein. Not this time.  Now I knit with one eye watching each tug, fighting the urge to weigh the last two partial skeins.  This wouldn't tell me much, but it would be just one more way to obsess about whether or not I will have enough yarn.

What keeps me going is that we are officially entering Fall, which means shawl weather, and I am almost finished with a brand spanking new nearly-finished shawl that I am just itching to debut.

Today, it is all about the urges and itches.   

 

The Knitting Theory of Relativity

Black holes exist.  I don't need long equations of quantum physics to prove it to me.  I don't need Einstein or Hawking.  I just need to look at my knitting. 

When I started Fuchsia Wave, I was going so fast, yarn burn on my fingers started to be a real concern.  The inches I was producing seemed to contradict both the knitting time and the slowly dwindling pile of yarn.

Then there was the edge. 

Now that I have entered the second half, and even the last long section of edge, I have entered a black hole.  I knit and knit and knit, and my progress is imperceptible to the naked eye or average measuring tape.  At the same time, I am consuming the remaining yarn at an alarming rate.

It would appear that knitting progress is inversely proportional to the time in which you have to knit an object; and yarn consumption is inversely proportional to the yarn available for use.  I am sure some science-y geek is going to tell me that I said that wrong.  The closer your deadline, the slower you seem to knit.  The less yarn you have, the more you seem to consume. 

Do you think that is was Einstein had in mind?

No pictures today.  One, it isn't necessary, just look at the last few pictures.  Two, I couldn't find the camera.  I looked everywhere, including in my panty drawer, which isn't where it belongs, but IS where I found my eyeglasses this morning, so it couldn't hurt to look.  No luck. 

Today, it is all about the physics. 

A Week Without Knitting

There are some weeks that simply cry out for knitting.  Unfortunately, these are usually the weeks that don't have time for knitting.  I see a flaw in my system.

Monday was Knittervention.  That was a good thing.  I even had a little extra knitting time, thanks to my mother.  She was arriving from Poland that night, and I was meeting her shuttle.  She texted that she was almost to town when it was time to leave, and there was no reason to drive home, wait 15 minutes, then leave again.  Far better to just get an extra 40 minutes of knitting time.  By the time I picked up Mom, delivered her safely home, then went to my own home, it was pushing midnight.

Tuesday night was an NRA banquet.  My sweetie goes every year.  This year, one person confirmed, paid, then changed his mind, so I used his ticket.  The dinner was tasty, but exhaustion was quickly catching up with me.  Also, it is probably better if I don't see how much $$$ my sweetie spends trying to win guns, etc.  He did win a small fingerprint-access safe.  Another late night.

To add a little chaos to the mix, Bugaboo came home from school with a fever.  By morning, it was not better, so I was in the office for a couple hours, then had to leave early to take him to the doctor.  Strep.  Brilliant.  So there was some last minute schedule maneuvering to set up who would stay home with him.  By the time I tucked the baby boys into bed, I was ready to fall into bed myself.

Thursday was a flurry of insanity at the office.  Court on the outskirts of Chicago.  I forgot about the time change, so I was an hour late for my afternoon mediation, and a half hour late for my child support hearing. Thursday night was a meeting at Bugaboo's school, then talk to the teacher and set up our conference.

Friday, I was a flurry of activity at the office, but still fell further and further behind.  Do one small project, halfway through take a phone call that added one more thing to the list, finish item 1, start item too, take two phone calls that added two more things to the list, and so on.

And where was knitting  in all this activity?  Virtually Non-existent.  Aside from Monday, I barely even looked at it.  I was running late in court virtually all week, so I didn't get any briefcase knitting.  I was too tired after kiddie bedtime to see straight, much less see stitches.

I have no significant progress to show you, dear devoted readers.  No pictures.  No milestones.  Nothing.  My apologies.   I start the weekend with fresh hope.  And Bugaboo is feeling better, and will be starting school again on Monday.

Today, it is all about starting fresh.

Turn 3

Monday was Labor Day.  It was cloudy and gray, so it was a perfect lazy day.  For me, that means stolen moments of knitting. That produced lots of progress on the short edge.

I am only a few inches away from rounding Turn 3 (green markers), and entering the last straightaway.  I have 50-60% of the full ball remaining, plus the 1/3 ball leftover from the body of the shawl.

To continue the Nascar analogies, and a running low on gas and my tires aren't looking good, but I can't pit.  I just have to blaze forward, throttle open, hoping that I have enough to finish the race.

And if I do, then I can win.

Today, it is all about the turn.

The Short End of the Shawl

If you can tell from this extremely shoddy picture, I am on the short end of the shawl edge.  A mere 11 repeats in 20 inches, and I will be starting the last long section.

The section which will either make or break the yarn.  The section where I will either finish in triumph, or crash and burn with a short end of the yarn.  The section . . . .well, you get the idea.

You know, my Mother is in Poland this week, maybe I should have sent her with a ball band, in case she stumbled on an extra ball.  I only bought it 8 years ago, I am sure they still have some on the shelf somewhere.

Today, it is all about the shortness (of shawl, hopefully not of yarn).