Bye week

I participate in two different knitting groups, both on Monday nights.  Knittervention is every other Monday night.  Knit Night is always the second Monday of the month.  Sometimes they are on the same night, depending on how the Mondays fall.  There is always a "bye" week, sometimes two, each month.

Yesterday was the bye Monday.  No knitting.  Just the usual evening home with the kids.

I was still able to fit some knitting in.  7 inches down on Mom's Christmas scarf.  55 inches to go.   (Sorry, no pics, still can't find the camera.)

In other news, no, my yarn still hasn't arrived from Poland yet.  Mom talked to my brother the weekend, so I asked her if he had mailed my yarn to me yet.  At first she hedged, then mentioned that he had showed her the yarn via webcam.  Um, if you saw the yarn on Sunday, then he hadn't mailed it yet.  

He really doesn't understand the concept of a yarn emergency, does he?  What part of my instructions were so hard to understand?  I even gave him my address, though he did ask for clarification: "what country?"  And he suggested that maybe it would be faster to scan and email.  Ah, sarcasm, the grumpy man's wit.

I responded in kind.  I explained that Indiana had seceded, and was now part of Canada.  And that it was very difficult to knit with yarn than had been scanned, and the colors were never correct.  Two can play the sarcasm game.

Then he asked about the story behind the yarn.  If you don't read the blog, then you don't deserve to know.  (How bad is it that my brother and mother and husband don't read my blog?  Just strangers from Russia and Indonesia, this week anyway.)

Today, it is all about the sarcasm.
  

May I present my stitches?

'Tis the season for Christmas knitting.  The weather turns cold, and knitters everywhere suddenly realize that Christmas is looming, and gifts need to be finished.  And started.

My mother-in-law's Christmas gift scarf, Spring Haven, has been in progress for a while.  I needed another skein of yarn, which I bought last week.  While I was there, I bought the yarn for Mom's Christmas scarf.

Last night, I feel like I wasted the whole two hours of Knitter-vention, because all I did was swatch.  Two pattern and two needles sizes were the contenders, and just when I thought I had it narrowed down. . .I decided to leave the final decision to my Sweetie.

For a straight white man with no knitting interest whatsoever, he has surprisingly good insight in the craft.

The winning pattern had one of the strangest line of directions I have ever seen in my twenty years as a knitter:  "All wrong size rows: work stitches as they present themselves."

As they present themselves?!?!  Are you kidding me?  I mean, I knew what they meant, knit the knits and purl the purls, but it still sounded like the stupidest way to say that.  

Do the stitches walk up, extend a hand, and make introductions?  "Good evening, I am knit, and may I present my dear friend purl."  

Or even better:  "Hi, I'm Knit, this is my sister Purl, this is my other sister Purl."

Who writes these things?

Today, it is all about the salutations.

The Weakest Link

It is fortuitous to find the yarn you desperately need on Ravelry.  It is even serendipitous to convince the owner of the yarn remnants to mail you the yarn you need free of charge.  It is apparently beyond all expectation for your baby brother to check his e-mail or mailbox to discover the story behind the incoming yarn or notice it in his mailbox.

Really?  How does a person not check his mailbox in a week?

My baby brother was obviously the weak link in the Yarn Emergency Rescue Plan.

Meanwhile, I am working on my Christmas knitting.  A scarf for my mother, and another for my mother-in-law.  Details to come. . .

Today, it is all about the mail.

Has my yarn arrived yet?

I have ten inches of edge remaining.  I have 9 1/2 feet of yarn left.  I can now safely say that I will NOT have enough yarn. 

Which led to the email to my brother yesterday. . . Has my yarn arrived yet?  He hasn't responded to the first email, when I told him the yarn was coming.  Apparently, my brother is pulling his notorious silent treatment.  Not out of spite, just procrastination.  Hey, lazybones!  Check your e-mail, mail,  and let me know when my yarn is here!

Really, one would think he doesn't appreciate a yarn emergency.

In the meantime, I have Christmas knitting.  I bought the rest of the yarn for my Mother-in-Law's Christmas scarf, Spring Haven, so I can get back to work on that one.  And I bought the yarn for my Mother's scarf, so I can start that one.

Today, it is all about the emergency.  

Saved!

I can knit with confidence again.  Ravelry to the rescue.

I contacted Barbara, a/k/a Dobranoc, and she was kind enough to immediately mail out the yarn, at no cost to me.  Further evidence of the generosity of knitters, that she would jump to the aid of another knitter without hesitation or regard to cost.  Granted, the cost was minimal to her: a few yards of leftover yarn, for which she just hadn't figured out a purpose.  I gave her my brother's address in Poland, so that she would not have to worry about international postage.

21 inches to go, and worry-free.

Today, it is all about the generosity.

A glimmer of hope

Another inch completed.  Not really closer to answering the the Great Yarn Question, but closer to the end. 

I may have located a lifeline, if it is needed.  The magic question is can I get more yarn.  I bought this yarn in 2005 in Krakow, Poland, so my usual assumption is "no".  But I have learned never to doubt the power of the internet.  I struck out on Ebay and Etsy, but found a possibility on Ravelry.  Someone has 31 yards left from a sweater she made, same yarn, same color (I think).  She has it listed as "not for sale" but that could be just because she never changed its status after using the rest of the skeins. 

After all, who would want to buy 31 yards of leftover yarn?

A desperate woman who needs only a few yards to finish a massive shawl, that's who!

Begging and pleading with her is is certainly a better idea than ripping out the whole bloody edge and re-working the pattern to make it just a few stitches smaller. 

Today, it is all about the hope. 

The Skein Stands Alone

I am down to my last partial skein of yarn.  One last lonely skein.  I have 24 inches of edge to go.

As I have progressed along with the edge, worrying with every stitch whether or not I will have enough yarn, I keep thinking that I will know one way or another at some point.  When I finish the first short edge, when I am halfway finished with the edge, when I am at the last long edge, when I am halfway through the last edge. . . . I keep thinking that with each milestone, I will somehow have a better idea if I will have enough yarn.

I am down to the last two feet, and I still haven't a clue.

24 inches left, including one corner.  Approximately 1/4 of a skein left.  The last full skein lasted through approximately 84 inches of edge, including two corners.

I have a nagging feeling this is going to come down to the last foot of yarn.  I almost wish that the yarn would just put me out of my misery.

My imprecise relationship with math is killing me.  If I had kept better track of the actual numbers, instead of eyeballing and remembering, I might know the yardage question.

Today, it is all about the approximations.

P.S.  No pictures today.  And on a semi-related topic, if anyone sees my camera, please let me know.