SubtleFire

Watson is so close to being done! I had some slight hope he would be finished last weekend, just sliding in at the one-month mark and qualifying as a personal NaKniSweMo. Alas, it was not meant to be. Near the end of the second sleeve, I bothered to count stitches and realized that I had increased an entire ribbing section too many. (For those who haven't lived with this thing for weeks on end, that's 16 sts total, or 32 rounds of increases.) I'm down to only one real workout a week, so my upper arms do not need that much room. Not that they did this time last year either, but you see my point.

Back went Sleeve 2, more than two repeats. Out came the bind-off of Sleeve 1 and back more than 3 repeats. Unladylike language may have been uttered during this process. I'm a bit proud that I did not cry. I wasn't on a real deadline, at least. I have worked my way back up Sleeve 2, bound it off, and gone back to Sleeve 1, which is now lacking slightly over two pattern repeats.

So of course, being so close to finished with a truly massive project, I have developed a case of start-itis. I am dying (dying, I say!) to cast on the Blueberry Waffle Socks. I thought having a podcast to knit to might help me chug along on the last of the sleeve, so I downloaded all the episodes of Stringchronicity that I wasn't caught up on and went to town. If you listen to Stringchronicity at all, you know that its previous incarnation was SockTart. Yes, our beloved Maire spends a good bit of her time talking about socks. For some reason, this does not help repress my sock urge. Way to go, me.

I am not allowed to start a new project until I have finished this sweater and several things I have planned for a craft fair in a couple weeks. Mostly I will be selling dishcloths, since I had some made up and stashed away, a hat or two, and I am throwing together a few crocheted "infinity" scarves with some stash I have honestly been meaning to unload anyway and wasn't sure how. It's super-bulky machine washable stuff (read: 80% acrylic) so it ticks the boxes for the current fashion trend of chunky knits and for low-maintenance, which is always a plus with gifts. Next, I get to figure out pricing on all these things that strikes a balance between being fair to me for the work and being in a price range that people will actually go for. But not before I sleep, because somehow it got really late.

This is how I spent my Tuesday night, or at least part of it. Watson and I found ourselves in a tornado warning, so we picked up dinner and retreated to the bathroom. I watched tv radar through a crack in the door and sat on the counter to eat and work on the sleeve. Despite rushing to plug in my phone and mp3 player so I would have phone and radio when the power inevitably went out, the lights stayed on. This may be a sign that there is some disturbance in the order of the universe, though, because our power always goes out when it storms, and fairly often when it doesn’t. (Ah, local utility board, how we loathe thee.)

I finished the sleeve increases Thursday night and am on to the last few inches of pattern-only knitting. Yay! The sleeve has been more addictive that the body because you also get the instant gratification of much shorter rounds. I am absolutely not allowed to start the second one until I finish the flat-knitted portions. It can be my reward for all that purling.

Due to poor judgment, I wound up with my cable rows for the flat-knitted portion as purl rows. This is not as crazy to work as it may sound, but I have definitely learned my lesson about paying attention to what is about to happen in a pattern as well as what I’m working right now. I hope I can get it together enough soon to do some pics and tutorials for this and my “oh no, missed a cable!” fix (which has now averted disaster twice).

I am also behind in my reading for the Sherlock Holmes read-along at the Baker Street Supper Club forums (you should check them out, btw!) and have War Horse by Michael Morpurgo out on interlibrary loan so I can have it read before the rush of people wanting it closer to the movie release. Maybe I should spend less time online and more time actually getting things done?