Here’s contestant number two in the Union Market Square Pullover personality contest. Knitpicks Andean Treasure. The main color would be that nice, heathery orange, with that deep burgandy as its accent color. This is a sport-weight yarn, and at 6 stitches per inch . . . may be too large for me to use for this one.

Still, it’s lovely and soft and the colors are great. Definitely a good addition to my stash, even if it doesn’t get used for this sweater.

Maybe I’ll be lucky and my third option will come in tomorrow’s mail. Then I could swatch all three this weekend!

  And, what’s this that came today? Is it a briefcase of some kind? An art portfolio?

  No, it’s a Spaceboard for blocking! Like the one Theresa uses and that I’ve been lusting after for ages. I got mine from Patternworks, and it came so quickly. I had compared it to a couple other sites (like Angelika’s) and while the board itself was a little more, they didn’t charge extra for shipping and it was shipped directly from them rather than the manufacturer, so there was no extra waiting. Now I can block my NbaT properly when I get that second sleeve done.

Really, it will be so unusual to be able to actually measure things as I block them, it will be quite refreshing!

  Look what else I did last night. I turned my row counter into a [badly made but I don’t care I’m proud of myself anyway] beaded stitch marker. Now, I’ve had this actual row counter for years. Like,15 or so years. I haven’t lost it and it’s treated me right. But there’s been one problem–getting it on the needles, especially since I love circular knitting whenever possible.

Using a tip from Maggie Righetti’s Knitting in Plain English (a book I recommed to just everyone), what I HAD done was string a piece of yarn through the counter and tie it through one of those plastic stitch markers. That worked for the longest time, but eventually the yarn wore through. Fine. I replaced that. Then I accidentally knitted the marker into a stitch and had to cut it free. That’s okay, too. Plenty of markers where that came from. But in its most recent incarnation, it was on a split-ring marker–which kept snagging on my Chai yarn last night. (You can see this for yourself in the photo I posted last night.)

So last night, I was daring. I strung this on an eye pin and somehow or other managed to connect it to a metal split ring. The workmanship is lousy, but I’m proud of myself! It will be easier to slide from needle to needle and, while it’s no work of art, it certainly looks better than it did.

Now, as to the Chai shawl. I’ve been thinking about it all day–even at the dentist’s office–and I think I’m going to frog what I’ve got and start fresh. The pattern is coming too close to the YO increases at each end of the sections. It’s tricky, you see, because each diamond increases one stitch at either side–easy to shape around, but then there’s a jump of four stitches before the next diamond, and already that’s caught me off-guard. I think I need a bigger buffer around the lace pattern. And I also think that–since I need to do shaping increases not only on the front side, but also on the back–I may do all of them as M1 increases instead of YOs since the holes will get kind of busy looking . . . All things to think about!! But I think I’m going to start fresh. The lace pattern is beautiful, the yarn is beyond gorgeous . . . they deserve as good a pattern as I can come up with.

I am so looking forward to my long weekend! Longer than some, even, because my company always gives a four-day weekend for Fourth of July. (There’s such a drout of summer holidays, the PTB decided years ago to give off two days instead of just one for this holiday. Wasn’t that nice?)

  Oh, and I almost forgot! While sitting in the dentist’s waiting room, I saw a display for a veneer product that you can use to cosmetically improve your teeth without having to actually pull or do anything drastic or painful to your actual teeth. However, that’s not at all what the display actually read. “These Lumineer Smiles Were Created Without Removal of Painful Tooth Structure.” Oh, that adverb placement is so important–it should be modifying “removal,” not “tooth structure!” What this actually says is that they won’t be removing that painful tooth structure of yours. In other words, your teeth are still going to hurt, but they’ll look pretty. This company CLEARLY needs to hire better copy editors. Or to, you know, read what they’re printing on heaven knows how many promotional items to display at dentists’ offices around the country? Sheesh.

(Be proud of me–this was the first photo I’ve taken with my camera phone–and I figured out how to e-mail it to myself, and everything!)

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Just . . . Stuff //