Along Came A Spider

We're about to hit the road for another gymnastics road trip, this time to Montreal, but I felt the need to crow that I finally finished the Along Came A Spider lace scarf.



This was a kit from Rovings that a friend won at a knitting event in September. My brain has already been packed in my suitcase so I can't remember the name of the event. It was in Kitchener-Waterloo...Knitter's Fair, perhaps?

I'm taking the sadly neglected Lotus socks from the Red Bird Knits SOTM to work on once I've unpacked my brain, and a garter stitch baby blanket for the other 23 hours of the day.

The Trouble with Knitting In Public

I was KIPing in the doctor's waiting room today when I was approached by a Helpful Person who wanted to critique my knitting technique. Now, I am fully aware that I am an Awkward Knitter. I hold the yarn in my right fist and drop the needle to wrap the yarn. It looks like hell in progress, but this is how I am most comfortable and the results are good so I do not feel the need to change.

Said Helpful Lady indicated that I should learn to flick the yarn with my index finger. My mother knit this way and I am very familiar with the technique, but it does not make me happy. As a crocheter I am also semi-competent with continental style, but it is not my favourite either. I like to knit the way I like to knit, and that just happens to involve flailing my right fist while my needle drops into my lap, often sliding out of the stitches along the way. I can deal with it. I told the lady that it works for me, and she shrugged and said, "Oh well, whatever works," before moving away. But not before she had snarked that I must have just learned to knit in hopes of getting this scarf (which, by the way, is already four feet long) finished in time for Christmas.

Anyway. Let us assume that she meant well.

I present my Wallaby-in-progress as it stood a few days ago. I've added another couple of inches since then. The yarn is Knit Picks' Main Line in Wedgewood.

travelling FO

What did I do on our five-hour drive to Ottawa?



I finished Sydney's socks! I used Opal Petticoat Cotton and am crossing my fingers that she'll actually wear them. I've learned the hard way that she won't wear Opal wool.

We were in Ottawa for a gymnastics meet. I won't go into detail except to say that our results were ugly aside from one bronze medal on floor. Next week we're chugging off to Montreal for another meet. Medals will be impossible at this one because the daughter has been bumped up a level, and I fear, given my current assortment of WIPs, FOs are equally unlikely. I'll try to enjoy the scenery anyway.

We have too much flippin' snow.

I recall many recent winters when I have sat here staring at the frozen brown earth wishing we had a little snow to pretty things up a bit. And then there's this year.



The tail belongs to Logan, the snow-loving German shepherd who can't wait to get back into the house. Even she is fed up.

And according to this morning's forecast there's more coming before the end of the week. And what will we be doing during the next onslaught? Why, driving to Ottawa and back, of course, for a gymnastics meet.Of course I will bring along some mindless knitting to work on while the husband digs us out of the drifts.

Vaguely knitting related notes

Let me tell you about my latest boneheaded Random Act of Vanity. Five days ago I got acrylic nails. Lest you think I have no regard for my knitting whatsoever, I must point out that I had them clipped relatively short, explaining to the technician that I needed them short enough to knit with. And in my defence my natural nails were actually interfering with my knitting because they were so shredded that they caught on even the smoothest of yarns. It was purely a practical move, I assure you.

So can I knit with these monsters? Yes, I can, by golly! Can I knit fast? Not on your life. It's sort of like having to manipulate ten extra DPNs.

I did watch that silly football game last night while working on the new charity baby blanket. The good news is I sort of kind of moderately enjoyed it. The bad news is...my previously non-football-watching significant other discovered that he could get into football. Uh-oh.

Am still eagerly awaiting my Knitpicks order so I can start the Wallaby for number one daughter. I have no doubt that the neighbours gather to snicker as they watch me stalk the mailman.

Well, I have finished all the charity stuff that I'm going to, given that the meeting is today: two baby outfits and one slightly abbreviated Moderne baby blanket. I realized after packing them up that I had forgotten to take pictures, but I truly believe that our society will not suffer greatly for lack of this particular pictorial evidence.

As is usually the case when I knit garter stitch, the blanket was a screwup from start to finish. I've said before that I can handle complex lace and Arans, but give me a garter stitch washcloth pattern and I can make a total hash of it. I suppose it's because I don't pay it enough attention and it repays my disrespect in kind. So upon reaching block #9 of the blanket, I realized that somehow I had managed to knit one of the starting blocks in the wrong direction. This may have been related to an earlier disaster when I had to rip out a different block because I had knit it in the wrong position. Now, the wrong direction thing was by no means a fatal error, though I think I could probably classify it as a classic Random Act Of Stupidity, but upon realizing that the blanket had already reached the 32" minimum measurement required by the charity group I decided to cut my losses and get the miserable thing off my needles. It doesn't look too bad, really, but you'll have to take my word for that.

Since I so cleverly neglected to photograph the latest FOs and am not inclined to unpack them again (I already had to unpack once upon realizing that I had forgotten to label the blanket with its measurements), I have decided to post a pic of an old FO from sometime last year. I babbled at the time about the My Constant Companion tote that I had been working on. I never considered this thing fully finished because I still have not sewn on the 47 or so pockets I made. And yet, strangely enough, it still functions as a bag!



I knit it a little taller than the pattern instructed, and we'll just say I did it on purpose. It's easily big enough to carry a small blanket in progress so that worked out quite well in the end. It does have an unparalleled talent for attracting dog hair, though, so I don't often take it out in public for fear someone will ask me to muzzle it.

Current WIPs include, um, a whole bunch of stuff I started a long time ago. The Along Came a Spider lace scarf is right up there and I still have some faint hope of getting it done in time to wear this winter. I am making some cotton blend socks for the youngest daughter, and the first one is nearing completion. I have barely started a garter stitch (danger, Will Robinson!) blanket as my next charity offering. I'll probably get some work done on that today. And soon I hope to resurrect the Lotus socks and the Flowing River shawl, along with a truckload of other UFOs that are haunting my basement.

Today I intend to watch that silly football game that everyone is always talking about. I've never seen it before, I have no idea which teams are playing or why I am even considering it. But I figure it's a good excuse to Sit and Knit and eat a lot of junk food.