Work is not always required...there is such as thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected. (George McDonald)

It's Wednesday again, and time for an update on the knitting. My last update was a month ago, so it looks like I've got a lot. Until you realize that it's been a month, and this is all I've gotten done.

I've been keeping up pretty well with my commitment to do one charity baby hat a week. Sometimes (like this week), I struggle to get a hat finished in time. But the hats are fun, quick projects and are almost becoming as much of an obsession as the sock knitting for me.


I like this lace-trimmed hat pattern. It was very easy to do, but turned out so pretty.


This hat was one of the ones that barely made my weekly deadline. I ended up knitting it at our Boca Knit 1 Brew 2 meeting. This is the second time I've used this pattern. It's a quick, easily memorized knit. And I can continue to talk while doing it, which made it perfect for the meeting.

Then I got the bug to do some crocheting. I used to crochet all the time, but my arthritis got too bad. Recently I've been thinking that if I can knit without it bothering me too much, maybe I can crochet. The hats were a perfect project. I got all three done in the time it usually takes to knit one hat. And my hands were just starting to cramp as I was finishing the third hat. I want to make some more of these, because they're so easy to personalize with stripes, or flowers, or whatever.


This week I went back to knitting. I picked what I thought would be a really easy pattern (it's only K2, P2) but it's turned out to be a pain in the neck. I've frogged more rows than I've knit. (Okay, that's physically impossible, but it sure seems like I have!) It's an adorable pattern, provided you don't goof up and do an extra knit or double up on the purls as you make your way around the circle. Part of the problem is that I tried to walk laps as I was knitting this, and I think that concentrating on K1, step, P1, step was just a little too much for my coordination. I still have until tomorrow night to finish the hat, so I think I have a good chance at keeping to the weekly deadline.


I'm working on my second scarf for the Special Olympics Scarf project. After several false starts, I decided to do another double knit. It's fun to see two sides develop as you knit along. I'm making up my own stripe pattern, so we'll have to wait to see how it turns out.

I will admit to being somewhat obsessed by this scarf project (despite the lack of progress on the scarf). I've got everyone in my family (my sister, mom, daughter) working on scarves. I'll be starting my student on one today. And the other day, I talked a complete stranger into making one. I was at Micheal's Crafts, and a woman was looking at yarn. She's a new knitter, and made the mistake of asking me if I knit. Twenty minutes later, she left the store with too much information on yarn and knitting, my business card with instructions to email me if she had any more questions, and a promise to me to make at least one scarf (since that's all she knows how to knit, she might as well knit one for charity) for the Special Olympics.

This lace stole (Mystery Stole 4) is the reason that I haven't gotten any further on the S.O. Scarf. I'm trying real hard to keep up with the weekly clues, but I'm starting to fall behind. I'm about 10 rows into this week's clue, and there are 60 rows for each side to be finished by Friday's new clue. Lace knitting is fun, and I love the way it's turning out. For being my first lace project, I'm being very adventurous and doing it without any lifelines. (Well, it would take longer to do the lifelines, and I barely have time to knit it as it is.) I have learned that when reading the lace charts, it helps to highlight each stitch (i.e. k2tog or SSK) in a different color, and to write in the number of plain knit stitches in a row before starting to knit that row. That way you can just knit the row without having to stop and examine the chart for each stitch. And by doing it one row at a time, I can easily see which row of the chart I'm on without having to worry about rulers (which tend to get bumped to the wrong row, in my experience, which means that you end up tinking quite a bit).



I had one last project that I did. I managed to do this one afternoon, in a fit of determination. I wanted to be able to use my ipod while on the treadmill, but I don't have pockets (I hate the ipod in my jeans pocket) to keep it in. And I'd look really stupid wearing the armband holder. So I've had it in my mind to knit a necklace holder. I finally figured out a pattern I liked (very simple, knit in one piece) that I based on a bunch of patterns I looked at. I used my first handspun yarn, so now I have an excuse to show that off as well. I've used my cosy carrier a couple of times now, and I really like it, although a pocket for the cord would be nice on the next one.