A Little Yarn On The Side

So, it's July 13--more than a third of the way through July, I am on the 8th repeat of a 26-repeat lace stole pattern (having completed 6 repeats over the span of 2 YEARS), I'm knitting less than 30 minutes a day right now, and some small, totally delusional part of me actually believes I might finish the kimono shawl before the end of the month. You know, I love being an optimist--it makes life exciting and filled with endless possibilities--but I think being crazy would be a bit of a drawback. To be fair, if I could finish one repeat a day I would be finished with the shawl in 18 days--maybe giving myself a 19th day to finish the edging--which would schedule the completion date on July 31 if I finished 2 repeats today and August 1 if I get only one done today. No problem--except for the TWO parties we're hosting this week, 1 party we're attending on Saturday, the dinner we're going to on Friday, the visitors arriving two weeks from today, that whole garden thin...

The garter stitch border for the blanket is soooooooo boring that I fell asleep while working on it today!!!! Is that a knitting first?

.....but it's the garter-stitch border on the blanket. It's boring enough to knit--it would be a permanent cure for insomnia to blog about. However, it has just occurred to me that I have now survived the 18th month in a row of Cold Sheeping (also known as "not buying new yarn"). So, I thought it would be appropriate for a few sober moments of reflection: * I really, really, REALLY want to have a box of yarn arrive at my door. I might mail myself some; then I wouldn't be breaking the rules. * I thought briefly about taking "before" and "after" pictures, but I just couldn't face the scope of the "before" picture. Besides, I don't think my camera has a wide enough lens. * Lots of people won't understand why you would stop doing something you enjoy so much. They aren't the ones who have to keep coming up with new places to store yarn. * Even if I just allowed myself one yarn order a year, I could STILL buy yarn f...

While I've been staying busy mostly with the gardening and working on Andy's birthday gift--with the obligatory help from Theo-- I have actually made some progress on the blanket's edging--also with Theo's help: It's just a simple garter stitch, which admittedly is getting really boring. So, I have been bribing myself with another WIP, the Kimono Shawl --again with a little help from Theo. There are 26 pattern repeats and I'm only on number 8, so I'm not sure what the odds are of finishing it this month, but if I DID get it done before casting on something new, I'd be extremely pleased. And with something as boring as the baby blanket to work on, it just might happen........

* the cat ate it * non-fiber-addicted aliens abducted me * it turns out that there really are yarn fumes and they can cause black outs * Michelle Obama called with some gardening questions and you know, I just had to drop everything * I was just riveted to the TV watching whatever was going on regarding Michael Jackson today * I thought I should slow the knitting down a bit just in case I ran out of yarn before the end of the year * the stash finally tipped over on me and I was pinned for hours until Theo relented and went for help * I was knitting too fast with my metal needles and the resulting heat flash caused temporary blindness * it was rumored that there was an Idaho politician that didn't belong to the NRA and I had to go see for myself * I was attacked by acrylic-only activists and held at needlepoint until I relented and said there was a place in the knitting world for Red Heart ----OR---- * making pineapple jelly, cleaning up the resulting mess in the kitchen,...

Today we interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting to play outside in the lovely 75-degree weather. The garden is looking great--the knitting, not so much...

Glory be and hallelujah!!! The camera survived the swim! There's a little smudge now on the screen I look through, but it doesn't show up on pictures, so that is perfectly acceptable. So, with no further ado, the FINISHED Luna Moth: It's a small shawl--I was 2 rows short of using just one ball of Elann's Super Kydd , but I was knitting pretty loosely. Looks like most people made it with just one. A close-up of the pattern which makes sense now, but I just couldn't picture how this was working while knitting. I'm cutting out Andy's birthday clothes tonight, but Theo resented my remarks about him yesterday, so he has not been lured by the promise of sewing, so tonight's cute kitty picture has been provided by Callisto who never ever used to show anyone her tummy until she saw how much attention it got Theo. If they acted any more like children we'd have to put them through college.