Happy Fourth!

With a quiet few minutes, I'll try to update the blog this morning. My non-knitting time to ease the pain I was having in my shoulder, neck and wrist lasted for about a week and a half. I was very grumpy! I did manage to wind some yarn, untangle a few skeins , do the finishing on two sweaters, ripped back the Calsada and the Pacific wraps and get them ready for a reknit.

I started back into knitting with the Calsada which I ripped back to the edging and re-knit it on a size 5 needle. I also finagled extra rows so I was left with very little yarn and a shawlette rather than the ruffle it had been. After blocking, I am quite pleased with the result. Also , this was easy on my hands and neck. I stopped often for stretching breaks.

I can't figure out if the skein of yarn (Madelinetosh Ms. Taylor) is cursed or I am just under a knitting curse. I tried using this for the Elektra shawl and realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to make it as big as I wanted it, so ripped it out and started the Pacific shawl. This is not a difficult pattern. It is well written. I have ripped it back four times!! The first was when I discovered I had dropped four stitches in various places and wasn't going to fudge all those mistakes. The second, third and fourth times I was making ridiculous mistakes with the pattern, so rip, rip, rip ,rip. I have finally gotten through the first full repeat of the wave pattern and I am about to take a closer look to see if it looks okay. (Had to sleep on it and take a clear-eyed look in the morning.) Fortunately the yarn has held up well to all the knitting and ripping.

I started the Ruched Tee with my knitting group and discovered the yarn I chose, while a lovely color and perfect for the project, is one of those cottons that really hurts my hands to work with. No give to it and it is knit in the round so there are a large number of stitches to push around. This is going to be a slow project because I will only work a couple of rows a day to save my hands.

We are settling into the out of school routine. Having the kids here every day takes some time to get used to. We'll keep them busy, though.

Right now I am listening to a happy cardinal singing with all his might and watching the blue jays and woodpeckers and gold finches getting their breakfast.

Happy Birthday, USA!