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Monday, August 25, 2008
One Last Time Before I Go...We're all packed and ready to go - we leave Wednesday for almost two weeks of hiking in the Scottish Highlands. I cannot wait.Oh, and packing? Always fun - especially with our furry little helper, who can't resist inspecting the suitcases. I think we'll have to double check to make sure we don't accidentally zip her up inside one!  But before we packed, I had to figure out the most important issue - what to knit?!? The Dale of Norway baby cardigan, ummm.... well, it kinda is already knitted. I still need to do all of the finishing, but the sleeves and body are waiting patiently for me, so that project is a bust! I also thought about bringing my long-hibernating lace project, but the yarn is on a cone, plus the chart is on a magnetic board... just seemed like a lot of bother. I thought about starting a pair of socks for S... but I'm afraid I might finish those up too quickly! SIGH. I tried swatching for a Trellis, but it just wasn't doing it for me. Plus, I was pretty sure I would finish it too quickly! So I headed downstairs to my newly-organized, newly-moved "stash closet" in the basement and tried to figure something out. And yes, this is the entirety of the yarn (with the exception of 1 basket of white yarns that I've set aside for dyeing!)  I ended up with a cabled sweater from Inspired Cable Knits, and started swatching in some superwash sock yarn. Of course, I decided I didn't like the cables in the pattern, so set about trying to figure out some substitutions. I think I've finally ended up with the cable on the left of this swatch:  It's from one of Lavold's Viking Knitting books. So I cast on, started on the back, and went for it...  Almost. It's too small - these cables must pull in a lot more than the ones in the original pattern, so I've ripped out and cast on again - I'll be using the stitch counts for the medium size, and the lengths for the small size. Basically, I'm winging it. But the cables are complicated enough that I can't finish this one too quickly - and at 96 sts for each row, there's plenty of knitting! But the pattern is easy enough that I can knit away without referencing the various papers TOO much. So after all of the knitting-related trauma, I treated myself to some chocolate (See's Candy, courtesy of my parents who just got back from California)...  ... and settled in with Cricket to watch some Olympics. I'm still pretty behind - life got in the way, so I ended up taping most of the primetime broadcasts. I'll get there eventually! And I'm WAY better than Athens - I didn't finish watching the Athens tapes until almost October! Cricket, you can tell, really loves the Olympics. She's on the edge of her seat with excitement...  But don't worry - Abby didn't neglect HER very arduous snuggling duties this weekend...  (yeah, that's S' pillow...) And on Sunday morning, instead of watching cartoons, we watched the "Squirrel Channel." Apparently, a few squirrels have decided to spend the mornings playing in the oak tree right outside our bedroom window. The audience was quite appreciative!  After the squirrel show went off the air, Abby, S and I headed to Old Town Alexandria for a brief field trip. While S was at church, Abby and I toured the city... we watched the boats...  ... got a little stubborn after spending a good amount of time digging for moles in front of city hall...  .... and finally ended up at Pat Troy's, waiting for the waiter to bring us chicken. She may have been just a teensy bit tired!  Whew! Hopefully my next update will be full of glorious hiking, knitting, and general visiting-Scotland pictures... here's hoping that my awesome airplane luck beats up S' terrible airplane karma and we make it to Scotland as scheduled!! 0 comments || # |
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