Saturday, June 10, 2006

Shoulda stayed in bed...

Warning, some non-knitting content!

First off, the root of this whole post pretty much, is that I have not been sleeping well for the past week for various inane reasons. My legs feel like I ran a marathon yesterday, uphill, and I have no idea why. (Never mind. I do know why, it just occured to me. We taped out the floor in the rehearsal hall and all that sitting/squatting/standing/up&downness is what did it. Huh. Great, now I feel out of shape, too!) My character on the MUD I play on died not once, but twice yesterday, very stupidly and about thirty seconds apart, so now I'm back down two levels there not to mention getting mocked (admittedly, I deserve to be mocked for the second of those deaths. The first was sheer bad timing and bad luck). A couple of my friends are going through some rough and highly unfair stuff right now, so I'm kind of emotionally drained, as well. I have some errands to run today (including going to the grocery store to get supplies for cookies for above-mentioned friends), and it might just have to include a stop at the LYS to fondle some yarn. Or I might have to shop online and find more Bearfoot or something. Retail therapy sounds awfully good right now.

ETA: I just got a phone call and had to turn down an offer to call all four operas of The Ring of the Nibelung cycle in Pittsburgh in July. While I'm flattered that the director wants to work with me again, I somehow don't think that PCPA will let me out of at least four weeks of rehearsals/performances. Opera isn't really my thing, anyway.

No real work accomplished on any of the current WIPs this week, mostly because I finally realized that I have exactly two months to make an afghan for Becki for her wedding in August. I've settled on a large, solid-colour entrelac pattern in some Homespun I had in the stash. I kept thinking I needed something simple that I could do quickly. Another Winter Night was a possibility (I could make at least one square per day for that and have it finished by mid-July), but I didn't want to give Becki the same pattern I made Amanda. I'd like to think I have slightly more variety than that. I know that her favorite blanket growing up was a quilt, and to me, entrelac looks very quiltish. I'm using the Homespun because it is a.) soft, warm, and machine washable, b.) a pretty color, c.) chunky and knits up quickly and d.) in the stash already. I'm on the first tier, and it looks pretty cool so far. I have five 24st base triangles on size 11 needles, and I'm thinking I'll do only six or seven tiers (or less, depending on size, I'm kind of winging it) and then the top triangles. Gauge is roughly (it's hard to tell with Homespun) 3st and 3.5 rows per inch. Instead of tassles or fringe like Danica or Lady Eleanor, I'm just going to put a simple knitted border around it. I think I can do a square a day for this one, as well, and I still have a bit of breathing room.

Of course, I'm still a pattern whore, and the spiral jacket over on Elann.com is...well, lets just say I've finally found the pattern for all of my WotA and can't wait to work on it. I just have to decide on the color order. Never mind that I already have five four projects otn (I'm going to frog Elfine, I think, it's just not doing it for me) and my self-imposed limit is three. Never mind that I have enough squares of the second Winter Night afghan done already to create a fabulously cozy lap blanket if I would just block the squares and sew them together, or that the Knitted Stripes afghan I gave up on a long time ago is actually the perfect size and design for a rug if I would only bind it off. I must get SOMETHING else done before I can start the jacket! Really! Someone convince me!

2 comments:

Coleen said...

but... but... if you took a job in Pittsburg, you would be closer to Maryland and then we could maybe MEET!

KT said...

I actually thought about that! Just won't work out this summer, unfortunately =( Sometime, though!