Oh Lord - what a beautiful weekend we had here! Temperatures in the low 70s, breezy and cool. Aaaaahhhhhhh…. And, according to the local weather critters, the temps are supposed to stay down for the coming week. Of course there’ll be some rain with that but hey - that’s a reasonable trade-off in my opinion :) Makes me want to pull up the quilt and go back to sleep - and what an absolutely delicious feeling it is to need the quilt in the middle of the summer!
The cooler temperatures have meant that fewer fans are running and those that are in use are generally set to “low” rather than “gale force wind”. That means the living room doesn’t resemble a wind tunnel quite as much as it usually does this time of year and that means I got to work a bit on this:
The Splendiferous Pi
I’ve made friends, again, with the Pi shawl. I finally managed to frog back to the mistake and correct it and yes, I did have to cut the yarn - twice. I lost about 18” of the stuff all together (let us have a moment of silence for the honored thread) but feel that was a small enough price to pay to get the mistake repaired. I sailed on for another few rows after that and am looking forward to working on it this week while the climate remains reasonable.
I also finished the purple coaster.
Fraternal Twins
Oddly, the purple came out a bit bigger than the pink. I can’t see any difference in the two yarns and I know that sometimes color (the dye or the dye process?) can make a minor difference in the thickness of the yarn so I’m chalking it up to variable tension :) As in - I was probably more tense when knitting the pink coaster than I was when I was knitting the purple one!
And, just by the way, does anyone else forget how to start something on DPNs between projects? This drives me absolutely, certifiably, unequivocally, two-fries-short-of-a-Happy-Meal BONKERS! As part of this weekend’s festivities, I decided it was time to start the second Harry Potter scarf. And I did try. Several times :( I can usually manage to get something going on DPNs without too much difficulty. My usual method involves casting the full amount of stitches onto straight needles and then sliding the stitches onto the DPNs, joining and carrying on from there. I did it for the first HP scarf and I’ve done it in the past for mittens (all right - a mitten) and for socks - should be old hat by now, right?
Well, it ain’t. Clearly the process is something my pea-brain finds far from intuitive because every now and again - yesterday, for example - I find myself at a total loss as to how to accomplish it. It makes no difference that I’ve done it in the past and I can lecture myself blue in the face about all the times I’ve been able to pull it off before. Still no dice. Does this happen to anyone else out there - the having trouble with something you know you know how to do? I may try it again this afternoon to see if my knitting chakra has managed to unblock itself.
In the meantime, I may take a nap :)
Now, where’s my quilt…?
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high winds and heavy rain briefly here- followed by return of intense heat- i invite anyone interested in a sauna to step out on our deck-
i think there is always a bit of variation in gauge between skeins of yarn which is probably a factor of the spinning process- ah, spinning- how i admire the handspinners and their beautiful work-
when i forget something that i’ve done without effort for years i just blame it on ‘mental overload’- it’s a comfort and makes me think i am actually thinking instead of just going along on my usual cruise control-
you had a productive weekend with ‘pretties’ to show for it- the shawl is beautiful-
stay happy-
It poured rain here & turned cool also…ahhhh…a preview of the autumn to come (and it can’t come soon enough for me!
Yes - sometimes something I’ve done 10,000 times totally escapes me. I blame it on the stars being out of alignment…after I throw the project across the room in disgust!
But sometimes I have a major epiphany in my fiber pursuits which makes up for all the deadends….details on *my* blog tomorrow. :)
Cool weather = good sleeping weather = excellent napping opportunities….enjoy!
barb - Sorry to hear about your heat - I’m glad I don’t have it, but sorry that you do :(
As for going along on cruise control - that’s a good line. Probably exactly what was going on yesterday :)
Bron - Glad you got your posting problems solved :)
That’s exactly ho we felt about the weekend weather - like it was a fall preview! Great minds think alike :)
Looking forward to reading about your epiphany!
Yes, I have those brain burps more than I would like to admit. I say I still know every thing I ever knew, I just need more RAM (random access memory.) Hee! The worst I have heard was a knitting teacher talking about having one of those moments, when trying to teach some simple technique she had executed successfully a zillion times, in front of a class of new knitters!
Oh imagine that - how embarassing! I’ve apparently gotten past it; I did manage to get the scarf started yesterday afternoon. I suspect that it’s a matter of my hands knowing what to do while my brain is overthinking things and thus getting in the way :)
That shawl is just incredible….what a fine job you are doing. Is that the Elizabeth Zimmerman shawl?
Hey, is the Pi shawl with the pink mohair? I forget. It must be if you had to cut your way out of a frogging. Anyway, looks great!
Maureen - Thanks for the compliment. No this isn’t the Zimmerman shawl - I don’t have that much nerve yet :) This is a crocheted piece based on a doily pattern.
Laura - Yep, it’s the same piece. I get to work on it this week because the weather’s cool so there aren’t as many fans blowing this spider-fine mohair all over the place!
Your Pi shawl looks stunning. I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished. By the way, where do you get your animated graphics, such as the roller coaster? I love those.
Pam - When I want to find something, generally I just stick the term “animated gif” into Google and poke around the results until I find something usable :)
Duh!!!! Now as I look closer I can see it is crocheted. Can’t wait to see it finished. 
