I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

A recent car trip to Southern Utah provided me with the hours I needed to finish up two scarves I started several weeks ago.  I’ve been trying to chip away at my single balls of lace-weight yarn and each of these was knit from less than 450 yards.

I came close to running out of the Habu brown silk, but with some careful planning I averted the need to purchase a second skein just to complete the edging.

Even without all the quiet knitting time, the trip would have been a rousing success.  I’ve lived in Utah for decades now but, surprisingly, this was my first trip to Capitol Reef National Park.  Both DH and I have concluded it’s our favorite park.  The hiking trails are totally accessible and, best of all, the park was nearly deserted.  No hoards of people like you now find in Moab and you always found at Yellowstone.

Tell me the truth, does my arse make this slot canyon look big?

When you have school-age children, the month of May is always frantic. My son will be home from college next week which means I have to clear all my knitting and spinning stuff out of his room so he has a place to sleep! My daughter will graduate in just one month so each of the next few weeks will be filled with “lasts.” Saturday, she and her BFF posed before being picked up by their dates for the last dance — the prom. *sniff*

Hint: My daughter is not blonde. But you knew that.

I completed a contract piece this weekend and decided to rest my overstimulated knitting brain by making a simple garter stitch scarf for the summer.

Pattern: Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz

Yarn: Noro King

Needle: U.S. #8 (5mm)

Ravelry project link.

The overarching goal was to use up every.last.bit of yarn.  Last night at Stitch n’ Bitch, Someone was encouraging me to bind off immediately lest I should–gasp–run out of yarn.  But I bucked the naysayer and worked 4 more rows before deciding to call it quits.

And, voila, look at how much yarn I had left.

That’s at least 48 inches!  *Hrumpf*  I laugh in the face of such a huge amount of leftover yarn.  Next time I’ll do a better calculation and actually come close enough to break into a sweat.

Interested in my forchette thumb but don’t have access to Principles of Knitting? I found a reference to the thumb in Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book. See what you can find when you look.

Don’t have Mary Thomas’s book? It’s easily purchased from Amazon or a big box book store. It was originally published in 1938 and the Dover reprint is an unabridged republication. Despite its age and brevity (and a disturbing reference to “coloured knitting” on page 113), it is shockingly comprehensive. Not the perfect substitute for Principles of Knitting, but definitely a port in the storm.

I’ve moved on from the mitts for now to focus on a new design. As you can see, the first attempt (at the top of the photo) was . . . shall we say . . . unsuccessful.