DesigKnit

Ever have too many things to post about? It’s almost worse than too few…it’s harder to get started, and easier to put off posting until you’re ready to sit down and really just write for a while.

Don’t worry. I’ll refrain from a 1000-word post.

First off, title of Sharpest Eyes goes to Ellen, who correctly identified the offset in my sweaters’ colorwork. I can’t believe it’s off. It’s one thing when I know I forgot to count and it’s my own darned fault, but I counted this out 4 times. From different directions. I drew diagrams. And I still mis-centered it. No idea how.

But are 5-10 stitches worth redoing a couple thousand? Probably not. I wove in the ends this morning. If I can live with a bias, I can live with a pattern not being centered. I just wish I knew how it had happened.

This has been a busy weekend. A “domestic” weekend, even.

That’s actually a bit of an inside joke for me. I took a Dependable Strengths seminar a few months ago, all about identifying your strengths and selling your talents. The first day of the seminar was on a Friday, and the second day was the following Monday. We came back into the classroom on Monday morning, and I was chatting with the woman next to me about our weekends. I said mine had been great; I’d gotten some gardening done, worked on my knitting (I forget what the current project was), done some cleaning and some cooking…

She gave a suspiciously brief little laugh, and said it sounded like I’d had a very “domestic” weekend, as if domestic was the nicest word she could think to use.

At first, this annoyed me a bit. After all, weren’t we in a class to discuss our strengths and accentuate the positive? We had discussed on Friday that one of my biggest strengths is an utter inability to be non-productive. Even if it means that I risk being “domestic.”

Then, it amused me. I mean really. I am one of the last people that you would ever call domestic. Suzie homemaker I am not, and if you have any doubts about that, you can ask my husband what proportion of the household chores are his (darned straight it’s half and half). And she’d just finished telling me that her weekend was “relaxing”; spent watching movies.

So, when I am having a delightfully productive and homey sort of weekend, it will forever be a “domestic” weekend in my mind. (Don’t forget the air quotes…they’re very important!).

Such weekends provide lots of blog fodder though, and I’m sure I’m already approaching my 1000 words. So, what have I done this weekend?

– Gone stash diving and come up with a million things to knit that are neither socks nor sweaters.

– Picked up a couple more balls of Cascade 220 for my next colorwork sweater. I think I have a pattern designed, too.

– Discovered that there is a woman at our farmer’s market that sells absolutely gorgeous hanks of hand-dyed, fingering weight alpaca for a reasonable price (!!)

– Been sorely tempted, and walked away (I might have said something about next week…)

– Made the front of a quilted wallhanging for my new office (I’ll show it to you later)

– Pieced most of a lap quilt I’m working on.

– Begun the fall Washing of the Sweaters

– Figured out how to knit the Mitts of Rovaniemi. I’ve been toying with the idea for a while, and decided to sit down and just figure it out. It’s delightfully simple. I see more colorwork in my future.

– Made a tomato sauce (yes, for an Italian, this is a day-long accomplishment worth writing about)

-Made chili (yay for weeknight dinners!)

I think that’s about it for now. I have a few hours left, though. Not a bad “domestic” weekend, I must say.

Oh, and because I promised,

Even though I had to take the sweater off to take the picture. See how much I care?

P.S. (684 words, if anyone was counting.)

P.P.S. That last line didn’t count. Neither does this one.