A slack a**e Thursday

24 hours, 36 hours…..never? I know that digital camera is floating around somewhere, the problem is where exactly. So now I need to find it. *sigh* Easier said than done, I’m afraid.

You see, on the night of the 26th I finished making my Nana’s tea cosy. And my hands got all itchy again. Nathan asked “So what’s the next project?” and I didn’t know what to answer. You see, I didn’t have a nice portable, easy to knit assignment at the ready, astounding as that may seem. I spent all of the next day with no knitting, which was just horrid during the day – we were driving around everywhere and I was forced to sit on my hands so I didn’t bite my fingernails, which is far harder than you might think.

When I was getting ready that night, and awaiting my chauffeur, I rummaged through my unallocated stash box to see what I could use, and flicked through a few magazines to see what I had marked off. The best candidate was a Fair Isle vest with huge amounts of ribbing at the beginning, and I thought my Jo Sharp DK in “Scarlet” was perfect as the main colour. Just after I packed it all up, ready to knit on the way to the party I thought I should just check my list. Lo and behold – Rowan Gloves. Oh yes! I’d completely forgotten about them, they’re very portable and I already had the Wool Cotton in red put aside (in the allocated stash box – see? I’m sort of organised). This caused a flurry of running about, grabbing yarn, pattern and The Great Double Point Needle Hunt, a weekly occurrence.

I cast on in the car, and by Sunday night I had finished the right glove – so fast, so easy. Except that I don’t like them. The pattern has a seam, and it feels icky. Unsurprisingly, I’ve spent today undoing the seams, frogging the fingers and reknitting in the round on 3mm needles. Now, they’re perfect.

And finished. No pics, for rather obvious reasons. They’re so wonderful to wear and grope and lust over. Highest compliment received for them was my very young workmate Sam: “They’re wicked!”. High praise indeed…

My current household project is a doozy. My best friend in the world has ‘fessed up to being pregnant, and you know what that means: baby knits! Finally! I’m so happy I’m almost sick with joy, and of course I’ve started. I cast on for a variation on the Pi Shawl from “Yarn” Magazine, and I’m halfway through – 288 stitches. I’m not looking forward to the edging, though; you pick up an edge st at the end of each row, by which time you have 576 stitches. Which means…576 rows. Of 16 stitches each row. 9216 stitches. If this doesn’t show my love, then nothing will.

I’m currently onto row number 102, which sounds pretty wussy for me, but when you count I’m also working with the full 576 stitches it’s not too bad. Really. I swear.

Sadly, my home knitting has been harshly curtailed by my inability to understand reality. In other words, I need to make a patchwork quilt by February 25^th for my da’s birthday present. Shame I don’t know how to quilt…