Tragedy on I 295

Okay...maybe not tragedy but it sure was annoyance.

We went down to Fredericksburg this morning to fetch Rachel back for spring break. Easy trip down. I got to go to the yarn shop. (I'll show you what I got tomorrow when there's some sunshine...or at least daylight.) It's a nice yarn shop.

And we all went out to lunch at Sammy T.'s and that was yummy.

The ride home was long. So I pulled out the sweater and knit away at the armhole decreases - all 20 rows of them. And the instructions say that at the end you should have 102 stitches on the needles. So I get through all the decreases and I'm admiring them...lined up so nicely, 10 on one side 10 on the other. Looks great! Well, let's count the stitches just to be sure. One, two, three, four...sixty-five, sixty-six...Mr. Pointy Sticks asks me something and I lose my place. One, two, three, four....forty-six, forty-seven....ninety-nine, one hundred......one hundred and one? No more? Hmmm...recount. Still one hundred and one. Hmmm. Spread the sweater out on my lap.


See where my finger is? See those stitches on the needle? That very first stitch, down near the head of the needle? It's a dropped stitch. And it doesn't even have the courtesy to be more than 10 stitches in from the edge so that I can just work it up the ladder. It's about 2 stitches from the edge. So all the armhole decreasing rows - all 20 of them - are going to get ripped out, that stitch will be worked up to the top and I'll redo the decreasing rows.

I wanted to weep.

Oh, and in embarrassing news. I discovered from a post on Ravelry that there is another blog out there called Two Pointy Sticks. And not just anyone's blog, mind you. It's the blog of Axelle de Sauveterre, the designer of gorgeous knits. Ones that show up in Interweave Knits with some regularity. And her yarns? Dear God, I'd sell my child for some of her yarns. (Hi, Rachel! Just kidding!)

Now, before I started this blog I did a search for the name and for some reason didn't see this blog. Now I'm wondering if I did something stupid like do a search for "Tow Pinty Stacks" or something without knowing it. Anyway, I left her a comment and said I was so embarrassed and I didn't know the right etiquette. I was thinking perhaps I should rename this blog. But she answered and said she didn't know what the etiquette was either but that she liked my blog! (I'm such a fan geek.)

So I guess I'll keep my name. But I'm going to put a link to the real Two Pointy Sticks over there on the right.

So...What's This About A Sweater?

I knit scarves. Lots and lots and lots of scarves. And hats. And the occasional blankie. Not so much with the sweaters. Perhaps because I haven't had a lot of luck with them...mostly because of my own bad choices, I'll admit. Actually, today I'm wearing a sweater I knit many years ago and it's nice and I wear it a fair amount....but it is also extremely itchy and I'm pretty tolerant of wool and mohair itching. And then I made a very elaborate sweater in a pretty, pretty pink. Took a long time to knit it. And I thought, "Sleeves are always too short for me...I'll lengthen them a little." I ended up with a pretty, pretty pink sweater (again in sort of harsh wool - what's with that, Sarah?) that had arms fit for an orangutan. It was Goodwilled pretty quickly. And then, more recently, there was the top down raglan I started in yarn from 100purewool. Lovely soft stuff. Lovely variegated colors...in the skein. But worked up...well, it started looking a leetle too much like something you might buy at K-Mart. So that's sitting unfinished. Maybe I'll use the yarn for a stole.

But I really, really liked the look of the Kimono Cardigan by Ann Budd that was in the Jan./Feb. Piecework magazine. And I have a bag of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted in a pretty shade called Delphinium, that I bought several years ago for another cardigan. After swatching for that first cardigan, I realized that the yarn didn't really work with the pattern. But a few days ago I started the back of the Kimono in it...and I liked it. So here we go.

Perhaps this will start a trend. Rachel's been saying she wants a big, cozy warm sweater....

Monsieur, Chez Beth

Monsieur L'Entrelac has reached his home. I sent him off to my college-friend Beth, who lives up in still-snowy Michigan and who can certainly use a scarf. Here she is, with her son Ben, and the scarf.


She's happy, I'm happy. We haven't seen each other in almost 20 years...we keep in touch by email and keep talking about meeting up at one of the reunions. But somehow...just doesn't happen. One of these days maybe.

Gosh, I remember the day she called me from Arizona (where she and her husband were living) to let me know that Ben had been born. Somewhere I still have the photo she sent me of a very tired looking Beth holding a tiny little Ben.

Car Memorials

Is it just the Baltimore area? I've noticed more and more vehicles - generally pickup trucks or SUVs - with In Memoriam messages applied (in a more or less permanent fashion...we're not talking placards stuck in windows) to the rear windows. Like "In Memory of Granma - 1945-2007" or "RIP Junior - Always in our hearts - 1984-2007." I think it's a little odd. And what do you do when you sell your car?

In other news, I got about 16 or 18 more rows knit on the back of my sweater. Perhaps I'll try taking a picture, though right now it really doesn't look like much of anything. And lest you think 16 to 18 rows isn't a lot...well, it isn't really. Though it is 1952 - 2196 stitches. On smallish needles. Sigh. It's going to be a long time coming, this sweater. This is why I like scarves and hats. But I think it'll be pretty...so that should keep me going. After knitting Margot's hat, I am sorely tempted to knit myself something in Aysen...it's lovely yarn. But that'll have to wait.

And hurrah...on Friday, Mr Pointy Sticks and I head off to pick Rachel up and school and bring her home for spring break. It's not like I miss her terribly while she's gone...I know she's having (mostly) a good time and working hard, but it'll be nice to have her here again for a while. I'm sure she's thrilled. She's lined up visits from a couple of her school friends. You know, because it'll be a whole week that she won't see them.

Current Reading

I am having a great reading streak so far this year. Lots of good books. Hunter's Run, which I finished last night, was great. I'm not good at talking intelligently about books...all my comments seem to come down to "I liked this!" But this one is an intelligent science-fiction book that gets into issues of identity and what makes us human. Very enjoyable and fast-moving.

And now I'm reading Slip of the Knife, the new Denise Mina. I do like her mysteries. And waiting in the wings is the latest Sue Grafton and The Somnambulist and others too many to mention. (Well, and also I don't remember exactly what they are.)

The Hat of Margot...It Is Done Completely

Yeah, I know...this sort of does away with any incentive to vote on the buttons, doesn't it? But Margot decided. And here it is.