KarenJoSeattle

FO Pinnate Mini-shawl

I need to do a quick post as Spousal-Unit has surgery at 7:15AM; less than eight hours from now. The surgery is not major, but does use general anesthesia.

I completed and blocked my Pinnate shawl yesterday. The finished size after blocking and relaxing came out 13" by 40". For my intended use as a small shawl to drape over my shoulders during air-conditioned performances, this size works well. I can also use it as a scarf to fill the collar of a coat or just fold it up and tuck it into my purse until I need it.

I started a pair of toe-up socks in cream-colored Regia silk using Judy's Magic cast-on for the first time. Actually, I've started and ripped after a few rounds twice. I still don't have the right number of cast-on stitches to get to the number I need with regular increases, but I'll just correct for it on the last round of increases this sock. My yarn already shows some stress from the repeated ripping. I made myself a note of how many to cast on for the next sock.

Instead of knitting, I did this today. Actually, this view shows only part of the pots my Garden Guy and I potted up today. The one that hasn't actually been planted yet waits for a tree fern.

I'm pooped and I need to be up early. Good night.

Lilac Time

Lilac Time

The lilacs are flowering, sweet and sublime,

     with a perfume that goes to the head;

and lovers meander in prose and rhyme,

trying to say --

          for the thousandth time --

     what's easier done than said.

Piet Hein

http://chat.carleton.ca/~tcstewar/grooks/

I 'performed' that poem in June of 1971 for the end-of-year show in one of my high school English classes. I was 17 and wore an empire-waist dress; very short with puffed sleeves, in a lilac-grounded print of little sprigs of lilacs. My mother was in the audience.

So, today looked like this:

...and I spent it working in the garden.

My hands have three different kinds of thorn tips in them. I'll have a reaction to them by morning.

My fingernails no longer have mud under them, but they still need some serious attention.

I think I sunburned my nose. Not good, as I have a family history of melanoma.

Along the edge of the drive in 4 flats are 50 pots of hellebore seedlings I'll need to baby through the summer.

It was a great day.

Green sock #1 has been bound off and woven in.

I tried my friend Karen's suggested bind off first. "For that stretchy bind-off, try a Decrease Bind off (K2togtbl, then place resulting st on left needle and repeat)." Didn't like how it worked with the 2x2 ribbing. Thanks anyway, Karen. I want to try this one on the bottom of a top-down sweater.

Then I tried doing a Decrease Bind Off in pattern with P2togtbl. Looked odd and was a pain to do.

Next I used Grumperina's stretchy bind off. "Work 2 sts in pattern (either knit or purl). Move yarn to back (if the last worked st was a knit, this is already the case). * Transfer the 2 worked sts to the LH needle, and k2togTBL. Work 1 st in pattern (move yarn to back if it was a purl), * repeat between *. Important Note: I use a larger needle to do the bind off." http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/archives/2006/06/so_i_knit_him_a_1.htm Not as stretchy  as the method I finally used; a standard bind off done loosely in pattern. I didn't even go up in needle size.

It came out great.

Tommorrow will be an orgy of sock toes. I plan to start the next green sock (a short-row toe with provisional cast on) and redo the 2 socks at once figure-8 toes.

The prediction is rain all day.