Back to the Drawing Board

This hasn’t been a great week for accomplishments.  I’m usually a great planner, and I start most weekends with voluminous to-do lists.  There is no chance that I’ll even get to half the things on it, but for some reason looking ahead appeals to me and plunging into the unknown doesn’t.

Uncharacteristically I forged ahead with Ed’s sleeve without really thinking it through.  I thought I could avoid the chart and just wing it—just use a chart I already made for the front and make notes on it.  This lack of forethought angered the knitting gods and simply led to frogging.  I neglected to consider how the increases would eventually give rise to new cables as the sleeve got wider.  I initially added the stitches in reverse stockinette, and so there was no chance that I’d have a seamless transition between the added stitches and the eventual cable, which is done on regular stockinette.  So last night, I ripped back to the ribbing and spent an hour creating a chart for bottom half the sleeve. 

Tonight I’ll do the top of the chart.  There will be six repeats of the Saxon braid, and the 3x3 cables will flank it.  There will be three of the 3x3 cables on each side of the Saxon braid.  I want this sweater to be as thick and warm as possible, and if I use only reverse stockinette on the sides of the Saxon braid, it will lack that thickness.

Another more pleasant reason for my lack of progress was an unusual weeknight out.  We shop in a very nice local market for produce and fish.  One shock of suburban life for me was the lack of specialty stores—those I shopped in when I lived in Greenwich Village.  Those of you who live outside New York are spoiled by fantastic supermarkets, which seem to me to be to be the size of football fields compared to those I can shop in. Most supermarkets in NY are cramped and dingy in comparison, and they have paltry selections of fresh food.  So Ed makes a weekly trip to Turco’s, where we do find what we want.  And on a recent trip, Ed filled out a ticket for a drawing for an evening at the Westchester Dinner Theater.  I have never won anything in my life, and I was astonished to learn his name was picked.  So Tuesday of this week, we had a terrific time (and meal) at a performance of six stand-up comics.  I think spending a few hours laughing my sides off made me feel less bad about doing the sleeve over.

I promise that my next post will have some actual knitting in it.

Comments

[robin]

That sounds like a fun evening out! I love going to see stand-up comedians, but my husband is not as into it. He likes rock concerts, which I'm not so into.

That cable chart looks very impressive. If I ever need to do anything with charting, I will definitely purchase that software package.

[tiennie]

Glad you had a great time! We all need that!