How to get back on an even keel?

#1 Read about a very touching love story.

#2 Get and pass on a “chain letter” about women friends and appreciation of them. And end up chatting a little with three of them!

#3 Get an IM at work about what do I want for lunch? They’re buying it today. That was random and nice.

#4 Think about the progress I made last night on my merletto mitts (from the *june* FGF knit along/KAL)

I picked it up while watching the Bones premiere and first I wasted a good amount of time unnecessarily frogging down the first lace pattern section (first 5 stitch section) because I was confused about where I left off. I thought I was about to start row 7 of the 8 row chart but turns out I was supposed to do row 5.

Resolved to try to always end at the end of a chart, or at least WRITE on the printout what row I’m on.

Finished that lace repeat and did another whole repeat so now I’m 3 repeats into the recommended 5 before starting the thumb gusset.

I’m liking the  pooling of the colors on the plain side as well as the pattern side though admittedly the lace pattern is getting a little lost. Looking forward to finishing them. I think I got the lace pattern down finally as I didn’t really have to look at the chart anymore. Was getting a pretty good rhythm going so perhaps if the ADD monster doesn’t come crashing through and make me go to other things, I’ll be able to stick with this long enough to finish it.

But of course I’ve got a lot of other things on the needles that beg to be finished too. Really need to be sure to do the 2nd glove for Ibby’s test pattern asap.  I know some people put on their blog what they’re working on and the progress but holy shit would I have a bunch of widgets in the sidebar if I did that and that’s not counting things that are truly hibernating! I love that Ravelry has that as a status because those sink to the bottom and you can see what you’re truly working on.

I had to sit and think about it for a while, what did I feel like working on? And finally I decided to push myself to work on the Merlettos some because I was starting to kind of hate it and think that I would never get it done. I figured if I still hated it after working on it last night, then I’d frog and give it up as a lost cause. But I got across that line where I finally “got” the pattern which means not only do I not need to look at the chart anymore but I can also tell where I am by looking at it and also quickly see if I’ve gone off.

Oh, forgot to mention that after I frogged and reknitted the lace. I had to do it again because I actually did it wrong  on the reknit. After all that, I was moving along when I realized that stitch #1 or 2 had somehow gotten dropped way down to the top of the ribbing. I contemplated just letting it rip out through the ribbing but that would leave behind a ‘ladder’ that would look out of place. A light bulb hit that if I used my teeny crochet hook, I could easily pick the stitch back up to the top row because it’s like chaining in crochet only the YOs come from each row above. Was pleased with myself for staying calm and figuring out and executing the fix quickly and neatly.

And holy crap, lunch came and they put a whole cow in my sandwich!

Found them while looking for the cotton dishcloth yarn for redoing the Sunflower Hotpad. Did it in 2004 from a booklet but neglected to notice that it called for doubling the yarn.

Couldn’t figure out where I put the booklet but was able to reverse engineer again from the previous FO.

Finished it (yea finished item #2!) but am annoyed because it also doesn’t lay flat. When you fold it in half, it’s not a half circle so I think all along there should have been fewer increasing done. Thinking about trying to aggressively block it to force it to lay “flatter” and call it a day.

Did a lace repeat on Merletto Mitts and started on 3rd skein of yarn for Grrlfriend Bag #2.

Kept wishing that I had a nice long stockinette project to do as I just wanted to knit without much concentration. But didn’t feel like pulling out the Jayne stuff even just to finish the ear flaps on my personal which is one of the WIPs listed for Ravelympics too.

Evangeline would count but I’m bummed about realizing that I’m short of yarn and not able to get more from the place I bought it from. Plus I’m still in the light lace area so some concentration required.

I guess for Day #13 when I get home, if I still want mindless stockinette, I might cast on and do the last of the helmet liners. I also really should get to finishing my Waterlily top and/or cast on for finishing the 2nd of the Perkele mitts.

One bit of good news, a very mangled package finally arrived containing the issue of Interweave Crochet with the Citrine Skirt & Sapphire Skirt patterns that I’ve been wanting to do. I was a little dismayed that the pictures of the latter were SO BLURRY which is appalling for a PRINT MAGAZINE but what upset me more was realizing that the skirt can’t be worn by itself. It’s far too “see through” for it and the model was wearing leggings to match the main blue of the skirt. The same pictures were also online but I thought the blurry grainyness that made it hard to see anything of the skirt aside from the big flower motifs was due to poor image manipulations for the web. The print version was at least bigger and showed enough more detail that I could see the leggings now.

I really like the look of it but clearly will have to reinvent it to a more solid pattern if I get around to making it.

Citrine doesn’t disappoint though and I look forward to trying it out. I think I’ll try the Sailor yarn first and then perhaps the HP 31 Print by Lana Grossa.

Though I was exhausted when we got back between 7 & 8pm Monday night, I got the trailer parked, unhitched and dragged the bulk of the stuff into my house before collapsing on the couch.

Feeling frustrated at being 11 days into 17 days of Ravelympics, I dug out the Candy Cane #2 scarf and added the last 12 pieces of fringe in white Microspun which I’d found and wound neatly into a cake the previous week.

Finally an FO to cross the finish line with!

And here’s my “medal” for finishing!

Worked some on the Merletto Mitts and got out of the ribbing and into the lace pattern.

Also finished knitting out the Grrlfriend bag out to the end of the 2nd skein of yarn. Debating about whether to finish off here or keep going for a third one to make it bigger. Bag feels heavy already though.

Thinking that Adara is too heavy for this bag pattern, perhaps a crocheted one instead that uses chains for mesh?