knit and tonic

A Knitter's Nightmare

We just returned from a little trip. The trip was good. We had snow.

We also had long walks in the snow.

I got to finally, really, wear hand knits (I'm wearing the Monkey Bones Super Slouch...hooray!) and we threw snowballs at each other which, as it turned out, wasn't half bad, especially since I have a better arm than my little sister. Her boots, however, warranted her extra points.

We also visited a really old mining town in Colorado. And on our way there, it was just treacherous. We teased my sister, Dooze, about the Donner party, a bit of history about which she had never heard. We told her that her thigh meat would be mighty tasty should we get stranded.

And, after a drink at an old bar,

I won 22 bucks at the slots in a place called Minnie's in Central City, Colorado.

But the problem was, before we left home, I had carefully packed in anticipation for the trip. After much thought--and you knitters know exactly what I'm talking about--I decided to include an unfinished, but almost finished, pair of socks that I was going to *finally* finish for a dear friend of mine. I put the project bag in my carry-on and blew a sigh of relief when the TSA didn't say a word about my super sharp pair of circular needles. The 32-inch ones.

Truthfully, the trip was perfect, except for one thing.

I forgot to bring the yarn.

Poor Doggie

I think I will stick with designing sweaters for humans.

 

The end.

Yarn Requirements: The Rub

I thought I had a new strategy: Knit the largest size hat I plan on offering, one that I *hope* will only take one skein of dear, dear yarn, and see what happens so that my pattern's yarn requirements are spot on.

See that in my hand? That wad is all I had left when I was done with this sucker. Now I wonder, if I do indeed write up the pattern in this gauge, should I warn those who want to knit the largest size to buy just one skein?  Or, buy two to be safe?

I have a problem.

I am damned if I do and I am damned if I don't. The last thing I need is an angry mob waving knitting needles at me.

If I warn that there was *this* much left on my version of the size large using the Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky and they go out and buy just one skein and end up needing another one to finish the size large . . . perish the thought (this isn't cheap yarn--and the dye lots vary quite a bit).

If I say they'll need two skeins, and they end up like me, you know, with just a little teeny tiny wad leftover and they purchased two. Oy. Perish the thought, again.

And if I say that they *might* need another skein and to check the return policy at their yarn source, will they decide to not knit it at all?

I don't need this kind of pressure.

Not needing this kind of pressure is the way I'm rolling these days. Hence, the lack of lots of posting. I am knitting for pleasure, however. Kate Davies came out with this gorgeous over-sized cowl pattern called Funchal Moebius. Since I don't really have the need for a large cowl like this, I decided to cut down on the number of pattern repeats to two. I'm using some of the sometimes controversial yet ever so gorgeous Wollmeise. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see the patterning with this subtly variegated yarn, but it's actually working out. I highly recommend this pattern. She's a genius.

(The other reason I chose to cut back on the motifs is because, based on her yardage estimates, I wasn't sure I would have enough yarn. Ahhh: That's the rub all the time, isn't it? Having enough yarn.)