Sunday was a day in heaven, absolutely gorgeous. After ten days of taking care (never being out of sight) of C’s 87yr. old Mom, we were ready for a break, a little freedom. I pictured this.
What I did in the morning was something a little different. As we drove up the driveway the evening before, car loaded with three cats, one of whom starts to vomit as SOON as he hits our road in anticipation, we were stopped by a tree hanging across our drive.
As C held onto the really anxious, we’re here, I want to get out cats, I got out of the car and held the tree above my head while he drove around.
Just around the bend, he stopped and turned the car off. There was no getting around this one. Seems Thursday’s wind was a good one.
For us, it was the end of the road. The poor cats were frantic. So close, and yet so far. C. walked up the drive and got our other car and parked it on the far side of the downed tree. We started ferrying cats into the car and up to the dooryard. Whew. Then we went back down and got the essentials…. cooler, knitting, briefcases. That’s the leadup to Sunday morning. We hooked the trees to a chain attached to the tractor, pulled and cut them down. All the brush was hauled to our stump dump. We were back in business. After we unloaded the rest of our baggage, I got back to my plans.. lovely.
As the end of the Paddler nears I have a few comments on this pattern. It has been entirely enjoyable. The garter stitich will be warm, and was great mindless TV or reading knitting. The pattern stitch is easily memorized. You need only to look at the previous row to know what comes next. If I were to make this again, I would not follow the pattern when it comes to the repeats. Instead of waiting until a full pattern repeat can be knitted, I would begin inserting the pattern when a half repeat would fit. Maybe even before.
I think that this rather large triangle of unpatterned stockinette looks glaringly out of place. No doubt, others of you who have knitted this, discovered this early on and filled it in. I continue. Twelve rows of pattern and six rows of garter remain. I have one more skein of yarn. (Actually, I DO have more but I hope that one will do.) At this point in the triangular shawl, I knitted twenty four rows of pattern with the last skein. Close, huh?
Comments
6 responses to “another weekend bites the dust”
I also followed the pattern exactly… it would have been nice if I had realized it earlier…. but I went through my book and sketched in the stitch pattern for those triangles, so that next time I make the shawl, I will have it all figured out to begin with. It annoys me too.
I understand why you’re annoyed by the unpatterned area on the shawl, but I still think it looks great. Not least because of the beautiful yarn. Is that some that you dyed yourself?
I with you and Miriam, Judy. I knitted it as written, but would add the pattern in as I went next time. And I will do this again. Maybe even in DK for a really cuddly shawl for deepest, darkest winter. Yours is lovely, Judy.
Good thought on adding in the pattern repeats ASAP. I’m hoping my brain fog will have lifted by the time I get that far. I like the idea. The question is, will I be able to do it without screwing it up? (Probably, but my confidence is a a bit down just now, thanks to a frustrating day at work trying to figure out a bunch of computer stuff I was never trained to do. And all this because the secretary who is currently on vacation is paranoid about Job Security, and demonstrates her extreme irreplaceability but making ME look like an incompetent boob. [sigh] [end of rant]
I am loving this pattern, though, and am so glad you started working on yours first, to inspire me!
You have encouraged me to travel many an interesting road in this journey of yarn and fiber love! Thanks, and enjoy that Vermont Break!
Paula
And you went on undaunted. Love the first photo of blue sky. Your red knitting is a perfecta accompaniment.
The shawl’s still gorgeous – as are the photos of your place.