One Row Forward, Two Rows Back

First of all, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. Last week was my 7-day work week, and was just busy enough that I didn’t get much knitting done, much less blogging. This week, my internet connection has been on the fritz. We took Comcast up on the offer to switch our phone service over to cable, and it worked well, for the first week. For the past week, it has been less than ideal. Some days I have internet, some days not. To give the Comcast folks credit, they have sent guys out twice, both times on the same day that we called, and were very helpful. So far today it’s been OK, since the cable guy came out yesterday. There were a couple days when we didn’t have phone service, either, but now that’s working as well.

I thereby proclaim today an official email-blog-post-answering amnesty day. I will go through all the comments and answer questions, but being as I’m over 60 emails behind (and that’s just the blog comments), I’m not answering all of them. Thank you to everybody who has 1) said how lovely my sister’s scarf was, 2) liked my Amazing Lace post, 3)felt sorry for me because my house has been eaten away by wood rot, 4) complimented my dog, and 5) offered Icelandic translation services. There, I think I’ve covered it all.

Oh, and I was joking when I said that I had Icelandic music loaded up on the Ipod. I have listened to some songs on Rhapsody, but they have precious little from Iceland. Lots of Scandinavian artists, not so much Icelandic. Though it might help if I knew what I was looking for.

Today was sort of a loss. I have been very distracted by all the pounding and sawing going on here. The stucco guys start tomorrow (at 6:30 AM, on a Saturday), so they are definitely making progress, but the noise is starting to get to me. It’s been rainy, so we’re still under the Big Top, which is starting to drive me nuts. Normally Riley gets to go for a long walk to the park every day, but today it was raining off and on, so I took advantage of a lull in the drizzle to take her out just around the neighborhood. I got about ten minutes away from the house, and the sky just opened up. Even Riley tried to hide under the bushes, and she normally likes the rain. By the time I got back to the house, I was drenched, and soaked all the way down to my underwear.

Then I started knitting. I should have just known better, given the way the day had started. I’ve been working on those two-color socks, and have gotten the second one done past the gussets, so now I “just” have the foot to go.*  As a reward, I picked up the Langsjal Johonnu, and did a couple of rows. Then I found a mistake, and ended up tinking back the same two rows. Here’s a picture that shows about where I am. The idea is blatantly stolen from Claudia.

I’m starting to like the yarn more, though some parts of it worry me a bit. It is unevenly spun, with some parts looking more like a fingering weight than laceweight. And there have been a few short sections where calling it “cobweb” would have been generous. I’m hoping that these hold up to vigorous blocking. We’ll see.

I am liking the pattern. I think I might do the two ends first. The construction goes like this: you knit one border and the center section, put it on a holder, then knit the second border and graft the two together. I’m thinking that if I do the two borders first, then I don’t have to think about how much yarn I might need for the second one, and can just knit merrily away on the center part until I nearly run out, leaving just enough to graft the last row. Smart eh? We’ll see on that, too.

Everybody think good thoughts for sunshine in western Washington. I’m just sick of rain. Even the ducks look like they are sick of rain. I’d even settle for just overcast and dry.

*”Just”. I have size 10 1/2 feet, so this is not much consolation.

Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog! View all posts by Lorette