A Little Yarn On The Side

Today the Kimono Shawl and I got the car's oil changed and the tires rotated, and now that I've reached the 11th pattern repeat I'm feeling a bit more enthused. I'll be halfway after the 13th repeat, then it's all downhill from there. Don't you think it's looking a bit more manly after all the grease and motors today?

I actually was in bed--well, more "on" as it's freakishly hot here this week--most of the day with A COLD (which is an obviously stupid name as there isn't anything COLD about it), so I got the 10th repeat done on the Kimono Shawl, which leaves 16. And as it basically looks EXACTLY the same as it did yesterday & the day before & the day before... we're just going to say that this is what it's going to look like for the foreseeable future. This is how WIPS are made. You start out--the pattern and the yarn are new! They're exciting! You want to see how the pattern will look! You've got an inch! Then two! Then somewhere along the way, the inches become less noticeable, the pattern becomes a bit less interesting--perhaps even monotonous. Maybe a troublesome sock yarn starts calling your name....Maybe you start to wonder what you ever saw in lace, and when was the last time you saw someone wearing a shawl in public? The merino laceweight th...

Though, to be fair, my stash could do a pretty fair job of pinning someone if it wanted to, and if the fabric stash got involved as well....let's just say that it wouldn't be pretty. Nope, we're alive and well and have been enjoying an unexpected visit from my sister-in-law, who flew in from Colorado to surprise Andy for his birthday. We have had a great time, but next to no knitting--though I have finally finished the 9th pattern repeat, putting me roughly on track for a 2011 finish-- and absolutely no sewing, in spite of Theo's best lobbying efforts. There will have to be some major kitty cajoling this afternoon......

My little sidekick is upset with me and is even refusing to sew. After all the drugs I've given this cat and all the trips to the vet, I have finally made his bad side. I have put him on a diet. We went for a check-up yesterday, and he's gained 3 pounds this year--about 20% of his normal body weight. Admittedly, Theo has had a tough year, and between recovering from his injury & then his determination to watch over me while I recovered from surgery, he hasn't gotten back to his normal active self just yet. The vet gave me some glucosamine to maybe help his leg feel better as he continues to regain strength, and I'm trying to find a new game to interest him as he seems to have lost interest in the tape measure finally, and we're doing a gradual diet, but he's still pretty sulky. I guess we should have included the cats in the "no processed foods" plan.....

I would really, really, REALLY have sworn I had knit more than that, but apparently it just feels like it.

I'm now on the 9th repeat for the Kimono Shawl and more than half-way along the first side of the baby blanket. I'm knitting the border on, which makes it a bit cumbersome, but I thought if I tried knitting it separately then trying to convince myself to sew it on, I'd be giving it to my nephew to use on his own children. And being almost halfway through my WIP month, I spent an inordinate amount of time today looking at new project patterns on Ravelry. As I now know, being told I can't do it has even inspired me to want to vacuum , so a few more days of not being able to cast on a new project and I'll be dreaming of casting on a new scarf in Fun Fur........

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...