I and my suitcase full of yarn have returned from Boston. The yarn that travelled to Boston has, for the most part, come home untouched, but we have all made new friends.
Of course, I knew I was being unreasonable, packing more yarn that clothes, but I had high hopes. I feared I was coming down with a cold and the thought of snuggling up in the hotel room with pay-per-view and a pot of tea fed my knitting fantasies. The cold waited until I returned and now I face the plethora of holiday preparations with red nose, scratchy throat, and the energy of a damp dishrag. 'Tis the season.
There is Tesla in the lower right corner. I am still plugging away. All the other gray yarn is Tahki's Donegal Tweed, which I was planning to use to start (and finish) Rogue. Of course I knew that even if I started Rogue I would not finish it but I had to take ALL the yarn just in case. Ahh how naive the crazed knitter!
Of course, as I was sitting in the passenger seat of the car knitting Tesla as we drove up the Taconic Parkway, I realized that Tesla was progressing at the amazingly fast slow rate of 2 1/2 rows an hour, and that I was bored to tears knitting 300 plus stitch garter stitch rows, so that I could not knit for endless hours on this project without distractions and breaks. I love the sweater. I want to wear it. At this point I really can't wait to be done with it.
At the end of the weekend I have 40 more rows to go, more or less, depending on the vagaries of neckline width and final desired fit. I think the real Christmas miracle will be finishing it in 2005.
Distractions abound however, although I am limiting them to small projects. I know deep in my heart that if I start something like Rogue Tesla will be tossed aside to gather dust.
I started this sock earlier last week, when I needed a project in a hurry for the train into NYC:
The yarn is KnitPicks Simiple Stripes. I ordered it to try another basic sock when I wasn't sure what I thought of the first one. When I actually started it though, I needed a project in a hurry and I didn't have time to try anything new. I knew I didn't like the ribbed top on the stockingette cuff of the first sock, but did not have time to figure out a picot edge. Although a long-tail cast on in K1P1 rib was plenty stretchy for the first sock, I was not sure it would be stretchy enough for K2P2 and I am not yet adept enough at tubular cast on for K2P2 to do it on the fly without a book. I haven't learned how to cast on for a toe up sock and wasn't about to figure it out on the train.
So, having just read Annie Modesit, I used her technique for casting on with waste yarn and knitting a tube from the base of the toes up, adding waste yarn for an afterthought heel as well. This is a great mindless project when you just need something to carry along and not think. Picking up the stitches at the toe to knit down was a little fiddly, but not a problem. I knit the toe in garter stitch which I may like better. All that is left is the heel, picked up and ready to go, and then to graft heel and toe. I thought grafting was best not done on the bumpy, windy Taconic Parkway yesterday afternoon.
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