Nascar Knitting

It has been very busy on the knitting front lately.  I believe that I have mentioned before my my sweetie enjoys Nascar.  This past weekend was our local hosting of a Nascar event: the Brickyard 400.  (Technically, I think it is Crown Royal Brickyard 400, but I don't really keep up with the rotating sponsors.)

My job was to drive the 60 miles to the track at 7 in the morning, (Apparently, if you wait any longer, you risk being caught in the 100,000 or so of cars heading to the track that morning.) waiting until the one-way traffic barricades are removed to that I can drive back to the track to pick him up.  Him and his drunken friends.  It really is better that way.  They don't have to worry or monitor their alcohol consumption, or worry about the drive at the end of the evening. 

The plan means that I spend about ten hours wandering around Indianapolis.  I wasn't in the mood to go shopping, so I planned a day of hobby solitude: knitting, DVD's, and reading.  My mother's laptop was being temperamental, so the DVD's went un-played.  That meant that I did more reading than knitting.  I finished one book, and started another.  Even still Fuchsia Wave came out of exile on the dresser, and I completed a good six inches of the border. 

Which brings me to my ongoing concern.  This is the border, as completed so far.  

I started with a full skein.  I have completed one short side, and half of one long side. 

This is how much yarn I have left.  A smidgen left of the first border skein, one full skein, and one partial skein.

I have this increasing sense of doom that I will be staring at the end of my yarn long before I run out of edge to knit.

This is not an un-fixable problem.  I can rip out the border, and search border stitch encyclopedias for a skinnier border.

I keep telling myself that I will know more once I finish the first skein.

Today, it is all about the impending doom.  

Over 5000 served

Yesterday, my blog counter tipped over 5,000.  For reasons I can't explain other than vanity, I am just tickled that people actually read what I have written.  And, I hope, find some amusement in it.  Someone other than my mother.  (Actually, my mother doesn't even read my blog.  She knows how to knit, but isn't a knitter.)

I glee with delight when I see a new country on the stats.  I swell with pride when I see a recurring country.  I smile with amazement when I see a country like Russia with numbers that almost reach my home country of America. 

Thank you for your patronage, my dedicated and intermittant readers.  I will continue to try to amuse and entertain. 

Today, it is all about the fans I still can't believe that I have. 

Think twice, knit once

A few weeks ago, I said to myself that I wouldn't start anything new (read: the new Jane shawl) until I finished at least two things.  I meant Fuchsia Wave and Aurora Borealis, because starting another shawl when I already had two almost finished seemed like madness.  However, as I finished my Lacey in Red socks yesterday, I realized that I HAD reached the required "two" projects. 

So I gave myself permission to start the process.  Not start knitting, of course.  We are several steps away from that.  I am now allowed to fondle the yarn.  Pet it, as it speaks to me and tells me what it wants to be when it grows up.  I took the yarn to work, but didn't work on it.  I am not sure how this is a necessary part of the process, but it always seems to happen, so it must be. 

I have looked at the pattern, read the pattern several times, and skimmed other's comments about the pattern on Ravelry.  (Really, how did we ever function before Ravelry?  Oh, I remember, scores of knitters experienced the same issue with a pattern, then had to either give up, whine to a knitting friend, or muddle through on their own.)  I have tried not to be TOO distracted by other potential patterns, while keeping an open mind about what the yarns wants to become.   

As I become a more experienced knitter, I like to think that I am becoming a smarter knitter too.  A smart knitter doesn't blunder forward casting on with whatever pattern, yarn and needles happens to be closest to their hands at the time.  A smart knitter thinks about whether the yarn and the pattern will be right for each other.  Will this yarn work with the guage?  Will the yarn drape as the pattern intends?  Will the yarn color and pattern designs work together? 

Thinking, in theory, reduces the likelihood of knitting a few rows, then ripping them out entirely through tears of frustration. 

Even as I am going through this process with Jane, I blundered my way into a very small little pretty out of one lone partial skein of mohair.  Very small.  Hardly counts as a work in progress at all.  Row 3.  Major issues. 

Excuse me while I go rip out a very small piece of mohair.  No, I am not crying, the wind is making my eyes water. 

Today, it is all about the thinking.   

Knitterly Pride

Last night we went to the County Fair, a first for my young children.  We rode together on the Ferris Wheel, then they were confident enough to ride alone on the kiddie rides, and with parents on the child rides.  We ate funnel cake and looked at animals ,big and small.  My three men indulged Mommy to take a dash through the Home Ec building. 

I was surprised how little there was of fiber arts in there.  Lots of quilts, food, clothes (sewed by school children) and scrapbooks, but little knitting.  I saw one be-ribboned lace shawl, and maybe a couple other random items, but that was about it.  I also saw a couple grand cross-stitches pieces.   (I own both of those patterns, now that I think on it.)

Can anyone enter pieces in the fair?  Can I?  How are other knitters not doing this?  Note to self: look into before the fair next year. 

I was able to exhibit my knitting a little this morning.  It was only 60 degrees this morning, which is quite out of the norm for July in Indiana.  With a grin on m y face, I planned my clothes according to which shawl I was going to wear.  It was a tight competition between Duchess and Aurora Borealis.  In the end, Aurora won, if only because it hasn't been worn yet. 

I draped it over my shoulders, and strutted over to the courthouse.  Tres chic.  I basked in the compliments and adoration heaped upon my shawl by some of the ladies that I routinely work with/around.  Aurora deserves it. 

A few weeks ago, it occured me to that I have four shawls/wraps either finished or in progress.  That is a lot of shawls.  There is an attorney in town that wears a lot of hats.  Bright spring/summer hats, darker autumn/winter hats.  She has a LOT of hats, and it has become a bit of her trademark.  I am going to turn shawls into my trademark. 

Or at least, that is my rationalization for making more shawls. 

Today, it is all about the exhibitionism. 

P.S.  The Fair meant no casting off of endless pink stitches.  Maybe tonight.        

Baby steps

One of my favorite things about knitting is the concept of incrementalism.  Knitting is composed entirely by a series of baby steps.  Stitch my stitch.  Row by row.  Every yarn over, knit, purl, increase and decrease work together to make the whole product.  Like the giant medieval trapestries where tiny stitches of colors form the portrait of a epic battle.  The journey of a thousand miles, highlighted by each individual step.

A couple rows here and there, day after day, week after week, can eventually produce a finished sock.  Not quickly, at that pace, but eventually.  

Lacey in Red is the perfect example of this concept.  For years, it has been my briefcase knitting.  Ok, there was a slight break during the Duchess obsession, but for the most part, this red sock has traveled around in my briefcase from courtroom to courtroom. A row here and there as I waited on judges or attorneys.

Today, I started the toe decreases on the second sock. There was a week or two of more determined effort, but the socks will probably be done today.  You know, except for Kitchnering.  

I had a picture, but I accidently deleted when I started typing.  It is on the home computer, so I will have to add it later. 

Today, it is all  about the NON-endless end.

P.S.  Cast off more sttiches of the pink ruffle last night.  Still have thousands to go.      

The Long Goodbye

It is a little difficult to see in the picture, but I have started casting off the pink ruffle.  Ont he right side of the pic, you can see the couple hundred stitches, off the needles, in all their rufflely glory.  On the left side of the picture, you can see the seveal thousand stitches waiting on the needles. 

This is going to take a while.  Prepare for several weeks of casting off pictures. 

It is too soon to tell the overall proportions, but right now, the ruffle is flowing nicely, but isn't curling at the edge. 

Knitter like. 

Today, it is all about the endless end. 

The Last

At long last, I am on the LAST row of Pretty in Pink.  The last 3,000+ stitch row.  The last endless 3000+ stitch row. 

That is like saying that I am on the last 20 rows of a sweater.  Or I am halfway through the foot of the second sock. 

How can the last row seem so loooooong from the end? It really is a cruel irony. 

I have decided that casting off will feel like the true end is in sight. 

Unless I decide that the ruffle isn't long enough.  Then I will have to tink back the last two seed stitch rows and continue on.  Or kill myself.  Same difference. 

Today, it is all about the endless end.