What day is it?

I’m feeling a little dizzy.  I think I’ll just go lie down.  

Sleeve 1?

… then “Work even in [stockinette stitch]  until sleeve meas[ures] 18”.  Work in k2p1 rib for 14 [rounds].  B[ind]O[ff] loosely in rib.”  

Do you think that pain at the base of my thumb is a bad thing?  

Hang on, I’m gonna go call Peyton Manning.  I have a question about Bursa Sacs.

Partner sweater countdown

I managed to finish the Body of the Partner Sweater this morning (two sleeves left).  I started binding it off last night.  I chose a bind-off that is supposedly lovely and stretchy.  Perfect, I thought, to finish the ribbing at the bottom of this sweater without losing the lovely stretchiness of the bottom ribbing.  I got halfway through the binding-off last night, and with hands cramping, I left it and went to bed.  

When I woke up this morning, I decided I didn’t like the way that bind-off looked.  It was sort of thick, and sort of forced the ribbing to splay in an unattractive way.  So I undid it.  

Undoing has been the hardest thing for me to learn in knitting.  Not that it’s hard.  Undoing is often much much easier than the original doing.  That was the case for this ribbing.  But undoing is psychologically very hard for me.  I mean, I spent an hour on those ninety bind-off stitches (that sounds crazy-long to me too, but it’s true).  I could take it out in less than ten minutes and that work was pfffft! gone forever.  

I used to hate undoing so much—even when I had made ugly mistakes in the knitting—that I’d figure out ways to fix or hide or ignore rather than undo and redo.  I have left knitting sitting in my closet for months, years even, with a mistake or an unsatisfying bit of knitting, because I was paralyzed with a lack of wanting to undo.  

I have come to realize in my advancing age (can you hear my creaking rocking chair?) that the part I love most about knitting, though, is the actual knitting.  You know, the part where I’m sitting here knitting.  Making one loop of yarn after another in tidy little rows and rounds and columns.  So, I figure, undoing something (which has lovely little names like Ripping, Frogging, Tinking, or just plain old Un-Knitting), just gives me the opportunity to do more of the part that I love when I get to do it over.  

Plus, seriously, if I’m going to spend hours and hours and hours making something that will hang out in my life or the life of someone I love for a long time, I should take the time to make it right.  Compared to the time invested in knitting the whole garment, the Redos don’t usually add up to much (I say usually, because I know that there have been times when I’ve had to completely undo something because a mistake occurred wayyyyyy back at the beginning, or because the thing turned out wayyyyy too small or too big—and don’t talk to me about too small right now, because this sweater is just almost too small for Partner, but I refuse to undo it completely because I really like it, and if it doesn’t end up fitting him after I block it [which it should because the swatch I made at the beginning did the same thing, loosening up tremendously when I washed it], then it’s mine).  

(Go ahead.  Tell me to quit with the parentheses already.)

So on the sweater, I undid the fancy bind-off (which might still be good for binding off lace, but which I will not use for ribbing again), and started over, doing my usual bind-off on bigger needles to make sure the bottom edge didn’t bind up.  And guess what?  I love it.  It’s perfect.  The bind-off just sort of disappears into that bottom ribbing.  

Now, the question remains, can I meet my goal?  Can I knit two sleeves in three days in order to finish this sweater before the Olympics start?  Actually, less than three days depending on whether I count until the Olympics actually start in Beijing (which would be Friday morning at 7 a.m. for me, what with the 13-hour time difference between here and Beijing) or when the start will be televised for me, which is sometime Friday night.  Either way, the chances are slim.  

So what am I still doing sitting here typing, parenthetically no less?

Crazy Crafter

The first sign of the end of our summer has arrived.  Partner returned to work this week after his six-week summer vacation.  I love that he has had this time to hang out with us.  I know that we are very lucky to have this down time.  I also know that the structure of our local school system is what allows this and I support it fully.  I’ve heard all of the arguments for year-round school, and some of them are very good.  But for us, I would not trade summer vacation for anything.  Staying up late, sleeping in late, doing whatever with our time for a while.  It is profoundly soul-nourishing and relaxing.  

(Anyone who might believe that having some time off in the summer makes public school jobs somehow less “real” or less “full time” than jobs that continue throughout the year, please note that Partner will make up for that time before Christmas.  He works enough extra hours supervising sporting events, meeting with parents and community leaders and in general purpose long and emotional days to eat through that six-weeks worth of off-time very quickly.  And yet we still love the job.  Go figure.)

Over the next ten months, his job will slowly deplete our reserves, until, by the time May arrives again, I will not want to hear another story about teenagers. Or parents of teenagers.  Or teachers.  Or the dress code.  Definitely not the (stupid) dress code.  Not one.  

In four more weeks, Sonar X8 and Sonar X5 will go to school as well.  Third grade for the one, and the Kindergarten premier for the other.  We are all very excited.  Ok, maybe Sonar X3 isn’t so excited.  

In the meantime, I’m trying to draw out the indulgences of the summer schedule with a few more summer projects in my queue.  

Four fabrics that will be transformed into Partner shirts over the next week.  The brown and sand are yummy cottons that will be transformed into two complementary two-tone bowling-style shirts.  The copper and the heathery pink are stretch poplins that will become long-sleeved, banded-collar dress shirts (unless I don’t have enough of the coppery one, in which case it will be a short-sleeved shirt of a different style).  He’s trying to get away from white dress shirts.  

Two of these yarns will become two stealth projects.  The other two were just on sale and I couldn’t resist them.  I’m weak sometimes.  Three cottons, one wool.  

Some crazy knitting people have taken to using the Summer Olympics as a time to try to accomplish some challenging knitting project (similar to the Knitting Olympics, held every four years during the Winter Olympics, or the Tour de Fleece for the spinner-types, held during the recent Tour de France).  The idea is to choose a challenging project and start and complete it between the lighting of the torch at the Opening Ceremonies and the dousing of the torch during the closing ceremonies.  (If this interests you, drop over to Ravelry, a social networking/cataloguing/showing-off group for fiber/needle/hook-types, and join up.  Their front page splashes out all the details.)

I have complicated feelings about the political implications of a Chinese Olympic games.   The Sonars and I are taking an opportunity to learn about China (the G-rated, 3-8 year-old version), sports, athletes, and understand the purpose and history of the Olympics.   But I am not choosing to officially participate in the Ravelympics per se.  I am choosing to use the time to motivate myself to plow through the extensive queue of knitting projects piled around me.  

On the needles:

1.  Partner hoodie.  Probably about 75% complete.  (Note to self:  No. More. July. Sweaters.)

2.  Deployment socks for BIL.  10% complete.  This is my porta-knitting.  Needs to be done before November at the latest.  Earlier would be better.  

Up next:

3.  Kilt Hose for uncle.  Pattern TBD.  Yarn on order.

4.  Mystery Stole 4.  This year’s pattern is hosted by Melanie Gibbons again, but her mom, Georgina Bow is the pattern designer.  This one begins in a month and lasts about six weeks.  Yarn on order (some wool/silk blend from Knit Picks), beads are in the stash.  The idea here is that once a week, participants (thousands of us all over the world) will get a clue from Melanie and Georgina.  We won’t know ahead of time what the final Stole will look like, so the project unfolds like a bit of a puzzle.  A Mystery, if you will.  It’s a great knitting adventure, stretching my skills in a direction I don’t usually go (i.e. to lace).  (If this interests you, go join the Yahoo Mystery Stole Group before September 12.  The first clue is released September 5).

5.  Stealth project A.  It’s small and green.

6.  Stealth project B.  It’s also small, but not green.  

7.  Stealth project C.  It will be very very small.  Color and yarn TBD.  

8.  When the weather turns a little cooler (For five days in December.  Maybe.) Sonar X3 wants a new pair of socks.  When the time comes, he’ll choose yarn from the stash, and I bet they’ll be striped. 

9.  I want to make myself an Urban Aran, Cardiganized.  We’ll see if I ever get to this one.  Purple.  I want it to be purple, I think.  Or a rich, jewely blue.  For some reason, most people making this one are sticking to browns and greys, with a couple of notable exceptions.  I’ve seen gorgeous ones in blue and red.  

Anyway, here’s the “Plan,” inasmuch as I ever do such a thing as plan:

Finish the Partner Sweater before the Olympics start (two sleeves and eight inches of body, all stockinette).  Then do the three stealth projects during the Olympics (I told you, they’re small).  Then finish the deployment socks and start the Kilt Hose before Mystery Stole opens.  Hopefully I can knit the Kilt Hose alongside the Stole, and be finished with those in time to make the Sonar socks before he wants them.  

I’ll wait for you to stop laughing.  

All this and four shirts, a novel in November, Christmas (it’s out there), oh, and I forgot a bag I was going to make for a friend, and the regular maintenance of myself and my family.  No problem.  I’m making sure the freezer is full of ice, in the event (ahem, likelihood) of knitter’s injury.