Knitting, Not Thinking

Well, first, the little bit of silk is a thing of the past. Its been frogged and put back into the 'to be thought about' pile—and maybe the next attempt will be the right thing.

But I was thinking (a little bit) about how the pattern would look in a long color stripe yarn. So out came some skeins of Thread and Loop Kaleidoscope yarn—and look what happened in a heart beat! Looks good, doesn't it? I think I might have to get some more, and make a matching hat to this scarf.

This is the sea glass color way—Not my usually choice, pastels, but I really like the results.

This is a nice simple and quick pattern to knit—based on the Summit shawl—with a change or two. The back side is very different, but I like it too.

The scarf got even more attention when I realized my secret sock was over 7 inches long—and I still hadn't started on the heel. I didn't have a handy reference/pattern handy for working the heel, (I am planning to try out a heel I have never knit before) so the sock got put aside for the moment.

I was glad I stopped and measured, for some reason, I have been just knitting, and not thinking at all about these socks. I don't love them—but they are OK. A toe up sock always seems longer to knit, and not almost done once the heel has been turned, and I am sure these will be no exception. Especially because the number of little cables (currently 3) will double and slow the work down even more.

Yesterday's Sunday's knitting at Panera's was pretty quiet... Nancy has been having problems with working seed stitch—Even sitting quietly, with no talking, she kept messing up. So I suggested markers.. In the end, we placed one every 4^th stitch—A wide (bubble tea/smoothy) straw, snipped into 1/8^th of inch ring—yielded a thousand markers, (we got giddy and silly about them all) and 3 more new clean straws went into Nancy's knitting bag—soon she'll have a multi color collection of pink, blue, pastel green and lilac stitch markers.

But they worked. They keep her in the present—K1, P1, K1, P1, Place marker, repeat. 20 something markers later, and she had completed a perfect row.

I often forget how hard knitting can be when you haven't mastered the ability to read your knitting—Nancy struggles to discern a knit from a purl. Her project only has 6 rows (but 90 stitches per row!) of seed stitch edging...  But till we lit upon the strategy of a marker every few stitches, going was very slow.

Now,  shes made it her goal to continue the next 3 rows with out losing a marker. (I hope she succeeds—I know I wouldn't!)--But if she get the next 3 rows knit, with out losing her way (she has already frog this project once) it won't matter how many markers she loses.  (Beside, there are plenty more marker available at moments notice!)