Not Much to Report

Yesterday knitting a Panera's was great—but I didn't get much knitting done!

Just a few rows of the flap—But I helped Nancy get some skeins of yarn wound into balls, and helped set Debbie right (She's been so slow working on her sock heel, she'd forgotten to go back to knitting in the round!) Jessica got help tinking—but she is close to finishing her hat She'd started the decreases for the crown.

Carolyn came by too, bring our number up to 5. Slowly the group is growing!--Carolyn is another expert knitter--I loved her sweater in Madeline Tosh fingering weight yarn.. Nancy and Debbie were amazed I could recognize the yarn at a glance and a touch—but some yarns are like that, aren't they?

This AM I got my exercise—2 blocks East to pay my over due unmaintainable, then 6 blocks west, and 4 blocks north to the post office to mail off the prized from last weeks blog contest, and then 4 blocks south, and some more blocks west to library--and then 6 block east again and home. In this part of Queens (as in most of Queens), there isn't a neat grid work of streets as found in most of Manhattan—blocks are often trapezoids, and parallelograms, and not square or rectangles.. I can walk 4 + 4 blocks west—on my circuitous route to the library, but taking by another route home, 6 blocks east will get me home.

And this week is easier than planned—I have only one Dr's appointment. I had confused my rescheduled April 10^th (a Tuesday) with my May 10^th appointment--(a Thursday) and have only the one,

Thursday May 10^th--(not Tuesday and May 10^th!) Too many doctors appointments!

This after noon I will go back to finishing chart 2--(the last 4 rounds) of the peacock shawl. One side trip on this morning's walk was to Staples—I wanted some clear colored hi-lighting tape to keep track of the rows in chart 3—which is the most difficult chart in the series--(it has lots of “no stitch” spaces, and some long (35 stitch) repeats. I'll be adding a other life line too, and some more stitch markers (1 per repeat till I get the pattern established) So this will eat up some time. (but will save time in long run!) I haven't had to frog at all, and just had to tink a little bit. Using markers to “reset” the count every repeat is one way to insure I don't mess up. With tomorrow a free day, I'll have the chance to do another few rounds then, and get started with Chart 3!

What might eat into knitting time is a side trip I want to take—to a spice store. I'd love to get a jar of grated ginger (not dried, but all juicy) and a jar of tamarind sauce, and maybe some other spices. For years I have seen the HOUSE of SPICES store (well a warehouse really, with a small retail outlet) from the highway—and lately the urge to find it (it's in mess of barely paved streets in an industrial section just east of CitiField) has been growing. I also need to plan a side trip to Home Depot and get my lattice, too.