An Average Sort of Weekend in the House of a Knitter

I did all sorts of things this weekend, but mostly, I worked on my Bridgewater shawl. 

As you can see, I have corners!  Corners means it is now getting smaller.  As you can also see, by the pins and markers, I have dropped stitches.  Apparently you should not knit when you are dopey and doze off every second stitch.  I am going to see if I can pick them up and restore them to their rightful place and if not, re-knit.  After I realized just how many there were in this one corner, I put it aside.  I hope it doesn't stay there for long.  I feel really good about this shawl.

So what to knit after your job for the weekend is on mandatory time out?  

Well, first you crochet.  

The ever so intriguing Crocodile stitch.  A very lovely crafty friend who comes to knit group did me a big favour, and to repay her, I am going to make her something.  I asked her about colours, and what kind of project she would like (she doesn't knit and sticks to simple crochet). She said a scarf with a hood.  She mentioned one that another crocheter in our group made using the crocodile stitch as design feature on the hood.  It was really lovely.  

I've kind of been playing it over in my head, and I think I am going to do the crocodile stitch and then knit the hood and the rest of the scarf.  Now that I know the crocodile stitch well, I think the softness of a knitted fabric would be a real addition to the over the top texture of the crocs.   

The yarn is Drops Big Delight.  I could really like this yarn.  Its is just so amazingly soft.  One of the criteria for yarn selection is 'not itchy' and I really do want to make it something she can love having around her neck.  I am a little concerned about this yarn for close to the neck wear for her.  Though I don't find it itchy at all, she might.  I have a couple other yarns that might work coming in a few days.  Once I get all the yarns together, I will choose and with luck will get something that will show off these interesting scales to their best advantage.  

That left a fair bit of knitting weekend left with nothing to do.  I read and studied patterns, I looked at lace galore.  I sorted my Ravelry favourites, adding the more traditional category of warm shawl to my small shawl category and just shawls.  All the lacy lovelies were being buried under the many other kinds of shawls being knit right now.  So many lovely things, so little time.

Then I knit on the green mohair scarf and was kind of getting depressed.  The yarn balls were not getting smaller.  I could take pictures of them and you would agree with me.  They just sit there, about a third of an inch thick, intransigent and ever unchanging.  It occurred to me that everything I could think of was at pretty much the same place, that very merry middle of a place where none of the balls ever change size no matter how much you knit.  I had hit the Yarn Harlot's black hole of knitting on every single project I have.  All 13.  

It then occurred to me that there was a whole wonderful evening of Dowton Abbey, and well, gosh, darn it all, you just have to knit while watching Downton Abbey.  

So I started something new. Number 14. I had a really great time.  I would have had a great time even without Downton Abbey.

 The yarn is Noro Taiyo sock, the perfect thing for a mid winter need something new to knit.  Aren't those colours lovely?  And you can see where else this ball of yarn is planning to take me, all lush green and gold and orangey reds.  The pattern is Mizzle from Patricia Martin.

I had such a good time, I don't even care that I have to rip it all back and restart.  Note how each of the ridge and yarn over sections look different?  Yeah, but it just didn't matter.  It felt so good to knit in bright colours.  (Maybe it's time to work on the sweater again.)  The re-knit is done.  Still  love it.  I think this is going to be a zippy little thing.

And that was my weekend.  Kind of scattered, kind of a lot done, but nothing solid and nothing new done, just a lot of knitting, just an average weekend in the house of a knitter.