i need a hand

thanks elizabeth. heh. i couldn’t resist . . . elizabeth saw this tiny cutie and sent it along. i love the size; i can wear it secretly for good luck even if it doesn’t go with my outfit.

ooof. we are trying to get a jillion things done before we leave tomorrow to head east into the sunrise, and toward my home town. we are meeting up with my nephew and my mom this weekend for a (hopefully) relaxing visit in albany til next wednesday.

meanwhile we were deluged with work from the office yesterday after a completely dry week, and of course they would like it all to be done before we go. so, as usual, it’s plates in the air—we are juggling a lot.

still there is some good fun going on . . . i got up early and did some cooking so my mom wouldn’t have to (and also to use the wealth of eggplant, squash, peppers, and tomatoes i have in the bin)

a big pot of ciambotta is making the house smell heavenly right now. we are gonna eat goood this weekend. i’m also bringing lasagne, mmm.

i think i have all my travel knitting organized . . . i have four sock projects currently on the needles—think that’s enough? the good news is that they are now all ON the needles; it’s just a matter of knitting them, and taking pattern notes. i feel really good about that, and really bad that i can’t show you any of them.

i decided what i’m going to do with abby’s yarn, and have the correct needle and stitch pattern sheet packed

i love this stitch . . . it’s just the kind of thing i was looking for—geometric with a little openwork, classy, and it enhances the butternut color of the yarn really well i think. it kinda looks like brazil nuts (a favorite of mine). yay. i’ll have to be careful not to allow it to distract me from other things, that’s all (oh yeah, that).

i’m going with the texture knit on the smaller needles i think. actually it’s really tough; while i was knitting and when the swatch was wet i was sure that the tighter one was better, because the stitches were more consistent and the YOs were a good size. the looser one really didn’t have any umph, and the decreases looked all zig-zaggy. but now that the swatches are dry, i can see that the looser one has equally crisp lines and the tighter one’s YOs might even be a bit too small. and we are talking about a sheer scarf. hmmm.

i packed both needles just in case.

what i really wish is that i had a 24-inch 3mm needle, but i don’t seem to (seriously, if you saw my needle collection, the fact that i might be missing any sizes would knock you over). maybe i can track one down at the yarn shop in albany (hehehe).

the new shawl is still in design phase; the large leaf pattern is proving to be obstinately unwilling to be worked from the shoulder BUT i think i have a good solution—stay tuned. i just know that when it pulls together it will all go smoothly; i just need to get past this hitch (and let’s face it—the best time to get past a hitch is not when you’ve got 127 things on your mind at once. so maybe i’ll puzzle it out in the car tomorrow).

we are photographing lacewing later today for tomorrow’s release of the pattern (yay). it’s all proofed (thank you rachel) and ready to go; we just need some nice pictures (and david’s been completely swamped, hence the delay).

we are leaving in the morning but i’ll have my computer with me and will be blogging and emailing when i can (i won’t be able to respond immediately to everything probably, but i will respond).

ok, now, i have a pile of edits breathing down my neck; i gotta go. thanks for tuning in.