Monday, January 08, 2007

The Non-Finish Line

Because you can't really call it finished until... you know... it is finished. I am done knitting the Floral Gathering Sac. I grafted (!!) the strap and did the slip stitch crochet bit and left the rest to post-blocking. The pattern didn't say to block, and maybe Pam Allen's didn't need blocking, but mine sure did. After pinning it gently to a towel on the floor late Saturday night, I became conflicted:

Did I want it to dry fast so I could weave in the ends and sew up? And then do the lining, inside pockets and whatever else I thought I might do? Or....

Did I want it to dry slow so I didn't have to face all that was left to do, and get in lots of knitting in the meantime?

It is cold here, so the thing is taking ages to dry. I even put it outside during the relatively warm afternoon, and in front of the heater in the evening (until Pepper laid down on it - the heater being her favorite feature of the apartment). With all of these efforts, it was still damp when I left this morning, which leads me to conclude that the Universe enjoys procrastination as much as I do.

In the meantime, I started some mitts to wear at the office when my hands get cold (in the same Rowan Kid Classic as my office poncho), got in a few rows of the Noni bag (I did indeed run out of yarn before the decreases at the bottom, but I have more on the way), SBT2, and the EPS sweater. Oh, and I swatched for the Central Park Hoodie in the Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed - got gauge on the first go with that one, too. It was a productive weekend.

In the realm of non-knitting productivity, I packed up the Christmas ornaments and decorations, and we took the tree out. We had planned to take it out pointy-end forward, but because of the way we picked it up, it ended up going butt-forward, thereby scattering the maximum possible number of needles per square foot. I actually didn't care about that until I started vacuuming.

We have a pretty expensive vacuum. Like most high-end things (human beings included), it can be quite sensitive. The thing practically choked on all the needles, and I had a temper tantrum (first one ever witnessed by DH) trying to undo the clog. I did get the bright idea to sweep up as many of the needles as I could, and then resumed vacuuming without further incident.

I've said it before, and I will say it again: this year, let's go away for Christmas.

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