That awkward stage...

The Gambler and I are heading to Kingston (Ontario, not Jamaica) this weekend; he's fencing in a tournament. We are driving there, so I am faced with the question of what knitting project to take. Isn't it frustrating when you know you will have a few solid hours of knitting time, but your WIPs are in an awkward stage where they are either near a tricky part that you wouldn't want to work on in the car, or so near completion that you'll have to bring a second WIP anyways? Granted, I do have one travel appropriate project on the needles: This is the Herbivore Shawl by westknits. I initially started it as a present for The Gambler's mother. Recent events have led me to put in on hold, because to be honest, I have limited time for knitting, so if I am knitting for someone else, they had better be deserving of it! It's the subject of a whole other blog post, but suffice it to say, she definitely does not fall under that category, even if you factor in the sympathy part of the equation that led me to start the project. Case in point - when I showed one of the nurses at work the first Baby Cardigan, she offered to pay me to knit one as a gift for one of her friends who is expecting a grandchild soon. I told her that as my life is right now, time is far more precious than money. I couldn't think of a $ amount that would make it worth my while to knit something I had no interest in knitting. Given the current economic climate, I am incredibly lucky to be in this position, and I am well aware of it.

Speaking of Cool Weather Clothing...

I just finished the first of the Yummy Fable Gloves, just in time for the nice warm weather : Somerset is unimpressed. Once you get to the fingers and thumb, it's a free form pattern; the designer provides some motifs to mix and match. I'm thinking that the next pair I knit (in green, and shorter) I'll just stripe the fingers as well. Speaking of thumbs...when are you supposed to stop knitting the thumb gusset and start the actual thumb? Is it before the web between the thumb and palm is covered up or after it's covered up? When I followed the pattern as written, I still have visible "web": It occurs to me that the glove pattern is written for hands that are average length, rather than for someone with long hands. The next pair I'll add a few rows to the bottom and the top of the motif, and I need to figure out how much longer the thumb gusset should be.

Spring Ahead 2010

The rays are getting warmer. I am happy to announce that I managed to finish my 2 baby sweaters prior to the last day of the Olympics: I highly recommend the pattern - a nice combination of mindless stockinette with the cabling to keep you from getting too bored. Good SnB knitting. With that out of the way, it was full steam ahead on Poppy: The sleeves are too short, but my test swatches of the Lorna's Laces Worsted grew significantly with blocking. Since I have several balls of the LL left over, I can always knit them longer. This photo gives a better shot of the colours. I am glad that I knit the sweater with negative ease. Yay! I have completed another sweater! Granted, I have to weave in loads of ends, block it, crochet a border along the neckline, and knit a border (probably garter stitch) along the bottom...but since I am off next week, and have 2.5 straight weeks off in April, I swear by all that is holy that I am going to wear this sweater some time this spring. While it is still appropriate for the weather. (BTW: if Indian Summer is a warm spell after a period of cold weather, is a cold spell after a period of warm weather called Inuit Winter?)

New York Minute

* I started to write a post last week, but ended up having to go back to the hospital. While looking for the draft of the post, I came across some unpublished posts. Because it's faster than creating a new post I hate to waste a perfectly good creative effort, I'm going to go through them and publish them over the next few weeks as Oldies but Goodies. Kind of like what happens when there is a TV writers' strike. [November 4, 2008] I had some time to wander around New York City after Rhinebeck. I discovered Madison Square Park - which turns out to be nowhere near Madison Square Gardens. As I was walking through the park, I saw a squirrel crawl into a garbage can. He emerged with a crumpled up paper bag that must have contained something that smelled appetizing. As I watched him, he spun it around in his paws as he tried to figure out how to get at his snack. Eventually, it fell out of his paws and dropped to the ground. The squirrel gave up on the bag, and decided to look for something less labour intensive. The paper bag remained on the ground beside the garbage can. At that point, I realized that this squirrel had just littered! What you looking at? Given my history with rodent encounters, I decided it was best to just keep walking.