Tangled Up in Blue

This could also be called, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” except the key word here is “tangled,” not “vacation.” It was NOT a vacation to untangle a skein of SeaSilk, no matter how lovely the colorway (Periwinkle), and no matter how much my saintly father helped. It didn’t even help that we were in the moutains, in Leadville, Colorado, one of my very favorite places on the planet. None of this helped because of the REASON the skein was tangled in the first place. The reason the skein was tangled was because I was lazy. And stupid. Having run out of time to properly wind the skein before leaving home on the trip (and being a little skittish about getting the expensive yarn caught in the ballwinder), I decided it couldn’t hurt to just cast on the Montego Bay scarf, maybe knit a few rows  straight from the skein. I was flush with a big victory – finishing the Lacy Kerchief Scarf and being ridiculously proud of myself – so I thought I was invincible. HA! The knitting goddesses, including my personal muse, Purl, laughed. They snorted. They smacked me down. Hard. And I paid…

To the tune of probably close to 12 hours of untangling, I paid. At the kitchen table in Leadville, in the living room, through several TV shows and a DVD of “Breach,” on airplanes from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale — I untangled, I muttered, I swore under my breath. And you know what I learned? I learned that one’s fellow passengers on airplanes do not find untangling a mess of yarn charming in the way they find my knitting a sock or some lace charming and interesting. NOBODY wanted to talk to me — let me be brutally honest here, nobody would even establish eye contact with me. And who could blame them? I looked like a very scary – if not dangerous – person.

Finally, at my in-laws’ house in Florida, I finished the untangling. Then I started knitting the “mindless holiday knitting” Amy Knitty describes in the lovely Montego Bay scarf pattern (IK Summer ‘07). My mind obviously translated “mindless” to “brainless” pretty quickly, because I could not keep the damn stitch count the same 2 rows in a row. I ripped it out – once, twice, three times – I lost count of how many times. I finally realized that I was consistently leaving out the last YO before the end knitted stitches. BFD, but it made all the difference in the world to the scarf.

I cast on that project on August 9 (for the last time, anyway) and I’m still not finished. I have a sweater front on the needles as well, but I really want to be finished with this scarf so I can cast on for the Hanami Stole Knitalong. I have one more summer trip this weekend and my goal is to finish the MBS so I can have some closure and move on with my (knitting) life…

Look, Hadji! It’s Bandit!

My brother and his family have adopted this gorgeous 3-year old Husky, Bandit. We’ll be meeting them in Denver tomorrow — hooray! Driving out with my dad, then flying from Denver to Florida to visit my in-laws, then Florida homeward. Long trip, lots of knitting time — Lacy Kerchief Scarf (I’m growing to hate that name), I’ll be wearing you in a few days! Possibly also the Montego Bay scarf — except I’m too chicken to cast on that deluxe SeaSilk — it’s just too nice! Before you kindly offer to take it off my hands — don’t worry, I’ll manage somehow!

* * * * * * ‘toon*therapy * * * * * *

Here are our heroes of youth: Dr. Quest, Race Bannon, Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit. I had a crush on Hadji, but also felt strangely uncomfortable when Jade would show up acting all sultry around Race…