Tuesday, July 31, 2007

What have I been up to?

Well, let's see. Since my last post, I went to Boston for a few days. Of knit-worthy note, I completed the Branching Out scarf. I used just under 2 balls of KP Elegance (70% Baby Alpaca/30% Silk) in Grass, which I think gave me something like 31 pattern repeats. I don't have pictures yet because I still have to block the scarf.


Speaking of which, I was driving on the north side of Chicago yesterday and passed a dry cleaner (I think). This would usually go unnoticed by me, except that there was a large green sign on the window stating "Knits blocked!" What a temptation! I don't know why, but I really hate blocking. I think it's because once I've finished the creative part of the knitting, I feel like my job should be done. Plus I don't really have a good space for blocking. Currently, I use the bed in our guest room. Which creates problems when we have guests.


While in Boston, I also visited Windsor Button (acclaimed by both Grumperina and Knit Mongrel). The sheer volume of yarn and other crafting supplies is quite impressive. I am quite proud of myself, though, that I didn't succumb to the pressure - I actually just browsed a while, petted some yarn, and then walked out without making a purchase. The will power amazed even myself. But I currently have more yarn than I know what to do with, so that helped me refrain from purchasing. Well, I actually know what I am going to do with most of the yarn I have. It is finding the time to actually do what I plan to do that is causing me grief. Yeesh.


Hmm, what else? I've been knitting along quite diligently at the Mystery Stole 3. Here's what I have so far (I'm about 20 rows from completing the 4th clue):



All right, so I need to 'fess up something on this. I actually had knitted halfway through Clue #3 when I noticed a (to me) rather large screw up in the knitting. I had dropped or added stitched at some point, and I thought I had adequately fixed the mistakes, but I didn't. And because I had been rather cavalier about the placement of lifelines, it wasn't something I could easily fix. So (take a deep breath), I frogged the whole thing and started over. I figured, since we had 2 weeks for Clue #4, that now was the time to do it. So I very diligently knit and knit and am caught up again. But man, I definitely learned my lesson and am placing frequent lifelines!


Other than that, in the knitting world, I'm still plugging away at my Clapotis. I also started an Odessa for my sister. MS3 has kinda taken over my knitting life, so I haven't had much time for anything else. But I try to get bits in on my other WIPs when I can.


And I had to take a bit of a break from knitting last weekend to join the hordes in reading the final installment of Harry Potter. Don't worry, there will be no spoilers here for anyone who hasn't finished it. I will say, though, that I was not completely satisfied with how Ms. Rowling wrapped up the saga.

Happy knitting, everyone!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That dry cleaners is on Clark St on the way to rehearsal, eh? I pass it all the time. I can't believe you didn't like the end of HP... I won't spoil it for anyone else by talking about it here, but good lord. My brother says the same thing. You people must just all be pessimists. :) Miss you.

Zonda said...

Looking good! Glad you could fix it! Lovely color!