A Little Oopsie, and a Score

If you are an IRL friend and were at the LYS on Wednesday, you'd have seen me concentrating quite hard on my Andromeda shawl, and having trouble with the only row I managed to knit that evening.

I now know why!

I had made a fairly substantial error 3 pattern rows (6 rows) down from that row, which had all sorts of things not lining up. Because I often knit without counting (just looking at the previous row), I guess I'd missed the lack of an increase section. Well, no WONDER things weren't working out.

I had hardly any lace knitting time last night, because I had a meeting of a new women's group I joined (a lovely bunch of whom most were old enough to be my mother). But I did manage to a) spot the mistake, b) rip it back, c) get the wiggly lace back on the needles and c) knit a correct row.

The result is that, since there is no lace-knitting time tonight due to high school football chaperoning, I will be less far along next time I am at the yarn shop than I was last time!

Ah well, it's all in the process, right? And I learned I can find my mistakes and remedy them, which makes a person happy. By the way, folks at the shop assured me that my pattern DOES show up in the Koi yarn and that it will look fine when blocked. So I am continuing.

I did get through the heel on my second slip-stitch sock and hope to get some leg done on the bus/at the game tonight, which means that, as soon as I can get a printer driver that will work, I will be able to print out the pattern for the socks I am going to make with my Koi sock yarn. You'll get nothing but super-close-ups of those, since they are test knitting for a friend, but you will get to see how it knits up in socks.

A Score

Sorry I don't have any photos of it, but I did make a score on Saturday evening. Sherri at the Loopy Ewe did a major act of kindness, and posted on her Facebook status that there was some Wollmeise yarn available. Now, usually only the people who stay up all night and press F5 on their computers (or who order directly from Germany during the middle of the night) get a chance to buy any of this stuff, because it is apparently the Best Sock Yarn on Earth. There is a sizeable cult of knitters out there who feel compelled to own every color. Many do not plan to knit with it. I guess it's like an investment. If you need money, you can sell it for very high prices on Ebay or Ravelry.

Well, I love sock yarn very much, as you well know, and I have indulged in a few limited edition models that I am glad to own (such as the yarn my current socks are being knitted from--anniversary special for the Loopy Ewe last year) but I can't get THAT hyped up about any particular one. This means, as lovely as it appears to be in photos and the ones Bernina Karen (thus named because she teaches sewing) at the LYS has shown me, I didn't own any. Still, I can respond to a Facebook notice at a reasonable hour of the evening! So, when I saw the status, I went over to the site and purchased myself one skein. Yes, one. So I can now say I am no longer a "virgin," as Karen said. On the other hand, California Susan apparently found out the same time I did and got three skeins. I wonder whose stash will soon be larger than mine if she isn't careful?? (I really love how the yarn shop denizens pester and tease each other--it feels like one big happy family sometimes, complete with irritating siblings and crazy aunts (and uncles).)

I got the yarn in just a couple of days! Ordered Saturday evening and arrived Tuesday. I must say the colors are rich and deep. They are an intense violet-red and red-violet mix. It could be this color, though I seem to remember my color started with "rot" not ended with it. I want to make them into socks, even though it's almost too nice (and expensive) for socks. Maybe they will be some fancy Cookie A socks, worth the expense!

I must say, it was fun to feel the rush of knowing I had to order fast or it would all disappear. Probably my biggest excitement for the week!

Things to Come

Think of me on Sunday. I will be teaching knitting at the local MENSA convention. Sometimes teaching smart people is easy; sometimes it is hard. I need to make up some handouts AND figure out a way to print them (my printer refuses to install its driver, all of a sudden).