Terribly Remiss

Hello all,

Lately it seems my days off have been filled with things other than the fun stuff. How does so much laundry build up?

I'm working away on Mystery Stole 3. I'm about 1/3 of the way through clue 3. I am so glad that we don't get a clue this week because so many people are reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I need this week off to attempt to catch up.

And yes, I was one of those who preordered from Amazon on 2/1/07. I received the book on Saturday. When I got home from work I started reading, much to Keith's chagrin. I told him to leave me alone and let me read. It's not like this was some big surprise. The sooner I finished, the sooner I'd be back in the world. I finished around 1:20 a.m. Sunday morning. Honestly, there was no way I'd be able to sleep wondering what had happened to Harry and Voldemort. And all those hints of who might die...I just had to know. Now I do, and no spoilers from me.

I'm starting to really enjoy the laceknitting except for the obstacles I have to work around. It is not mindless knitting, and I've found the Keith is not always willing to let me sit and knit something that requires concentration. There was a whole thread about husbands and knitting that I didn't read on the MS3 group, but I think I must check it out and see if anyone can offer any good advice. From what I've heard occasionally at the shop, it seems a lot of men are jealous of the time their wives spend knitting. Quite frankly, with a simple project, I can actually pay better attention since I'm not thinking of what else I should be doing. It allows me to multitask in what I think of as a pretty positive way. Anytime you go to a knitting group you see knitters have meaningful conversations while the needles go the entire time. It's probably the same way I wonder if he's really listening to me if he's playing his guitar while I'm talking to him.

Anyway, I've got to be brief today since it's a work day. As usual, I plan to fill you in with pictures this weekend. Maybe I can complete clue 3 before then.

Brief update

Yes, I know I've been neglectful of my blog. I've been busy! Mystery Stole 3 is very slowly coming along, as is the UT blanket. Also, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out on Saturday, and I decided I needed to reread the others before then. I've just started Goblet of Fire, so I have lots of reading to do before Saturday.



In other news, we purchased a new vacuum cleaner. We got the one I wanted. I saw it in Consumer Reports as the best value in the canister vacuums. Sears had it on sale, which made it even more appealing. I had procrastinated getting a new one since the old still sort of worked. However, sort of is not good enough when there is a whole house to be cleaned. Hopefully this is the last largish household purchase for some time. We had to get a new lawnmower earlier this year since the old one gave up the ghost. I guess when your appliances are 15 - 20 years old, they do need to be replaced. We're not sure how old the vacuum is, but it's at least 16-17 years, and the lawnmower was 15. Like I said, hopefully this is the last one for some time. After all, I have kitties in the same age range, and they take up some cash too.



Anyway, I'll post pictures of the knitting a bit later today. I REALLY need to clean house some now that I've got the proper tools. (Well, I have to check the Swiffer pad/solution inventory to make sure I've got all the proper tools.) I do have a few places that need hands & knees scrubbing, like in front of the kitchen sink, but Swiffer works great everywhere else.

Play The Ecstasy of Gold in your mind as I ponder the agony of lace. I am on a quest to find 2 stitches.

(Re: The Ecstasy of Gold - here's the Mellatica version if you prefer)

Last night I embarked onto clue 2. I had nearly completed row 101 when I noticed I was 2 stitches short. I tinked halfway back since it looked like the center was correct and reknit the row. Still 2 stitches short. I tinked the whole row and counted stitches. 2 short. I went and pulled out clue 1. I thought I had completed it, but row 99 was not marked off. I started to knit row 99 and realized that I had already knitted it. Hmm. What in the world have I done? I tinked what I had just done, tinked back to the wrong side of row 95. Still 2 short. I spent some time comparing my lace to the chart. I can't see where I've gone amiss. All my yarnovers look like the chart. My last known to be correct lifeline is on row 77. Augh!!!! I hate to think I'll have to undo that much knitting. However, I may just have to in order to get back on track. At some point when I was knitting on Thursday night, I quit counting the stitches on the completed rows since it seemed I was getting to the end and having the correct amount of stitches to finish. Obviously, I got cocky. Perhaps I'll be able to get some work done on it tonight, but I won't plan on it. My knitting and tinking were very interrupted last night by both Keith and one of the kitties. I may just work on Keith's sock since I've barely touched it since cast on, but most probably the UT baby blanket.

BTW, The Agony of Lace is the title for today's post, but Blogger won't let me near the title line today.

A longer post tomorrow.

Clue 1 Finished!

As you can see, I finished MS3's clue 1 last night around 11:30 p.m. I wanted to get it finished before clue 2 was released this morning. Yes, I've already gotten clue 2, taped my charts together and looked longingly at it before putting it away. Yes, I wish I could stay home and knit, but instead I'll be at work, probably knitting on a hat before the day's over.

The latest knit bag accessory

A little something to keep that yarn good and tangled, not to mention it helps a lot when spit splicing wool!

Here's the updated picture of the UT blanket.

As for the Mystery Stole 3, all I can say is thank goodness for lifelines. Since I haven't done any lace before, I read all info on lifelines voraciously. I had put a lifeline in and remembered for the first time to mark it on my chart so I would know what row it was on. I knit for a couple of more rows, then saw a nickle sized hole in the lace! I had dropped a stitch in one of the areas with yarnovers, and I knew I had to rip. Luckily, the lifeline was on line 65, and I dropped the stitch on line 69. Not too much to rip. At that point I put the stole away (it was 11:00 p.m.). I'm looking for a good place to take a picture of it - someplace where the lovely pale grey will show up.

In the wildlife update, the hummingbird was back this morning, looking for nectar. Since my usually lush butterfly bushes are barely growing this year, I've decided that I probably should get a hummingbird feeder. I'm a sucker for wildlife, as you may have guessed from reading this. Heck, I put in extra parsley last year for the tiger swallowtails to use for their caterpillars. I need a new regular birdfeeder anyway as the one I have is about to fall apart. I won't get one with any wooden parts again. The squirrels gnaw through the wood. I'm not one of those who gets all bent out of shape about the squirrels raiding the feeder, but I don't like finding the feeding gnawed into bits from my beautiful, fat, well fed, but greedy squirrels. Besides, in her youth Brownie killed squirrels (and chipmunks and rabbits) with amazing regularity, and I think she likes to occasionally watch them in her old age.

I'll probably wait until I finish clue 1 to post the stole picture, so look for it in the next few days. And while I'm thinking about it, I switched to Addi Lace Needles. They are amazing! They are so wonderful with the Zephyr and doing the yarnovers.

One more thing. Go out and buy some of Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. It is very yummy - a vanilla ice cream with chocolate coated waffle cone bits and fudge. He's donating his proceeds to charity. Read about it here.