Wednesday, September 06, 2006

In which the author proves she still remembers how to knit...

I tried to post about this yesterday, only to have the evil internet gremlins eat my post and turn off my internet connection, thereby insuring that I lost every thing I typed. Computers suck, man.

And now, with my kinders all in bed, my man off to jam, and me here listening to "Everybody Loves Raymond", I crack another Diet Coke in a futile attempt to keep myself from going out in the kitchen and finding something to nibble on and get to work yet again, in a, mostly likely, vain attempt to amuse my readers. I hope you appreciate it.

This past weekend, I actually finished a knitting project. Don't all drop dead, now! Reach for the paper bag you keep next to your computer monitor for such moments. Breathe...breathe...

There. Feel better? I know I do.

It was a dull weekend, as Labor Day weekends go. We had promised to drive to Kalamazoo for the day. And having thought about the 2 hour drive there and the 2 hour drive back and the parlous state of my dishcloth collection, I decided to bring along a dishcloth to knit and actually get something done. Most of my dishcloths date back to my last dishcloth knitting frenzy and have been developing holes at an alarming rate, to the result that I am down to one or two. The original color of this yarn has long disappeared and they are all a uniformly ugly tan color from their contact with tomato sauce and ketchup in the dishwasher, where I hang the current one over the edge of the upper rack to sanitize it.

So I jumped on the internet in the morning on Friday and searched for the ubiquitous diagonal dishcloth with the eyelet border that everyone and their grandma makes. I don't keep a copy of this thing in my pattern books...why should I when everybody obligingly posts it to their websites? I found a copy, went stash-diving for some Sugar 'n Cream (in shades of pink), found my short #8's and loaded up my little Vera Bradley bag and I was all set.

I was 1/3rd done before we even got out of metro Detroit. Because Friday wasn't considered to be part of Labor Day weekend, the road construction crews were still hard at work, with the usual one man digging a hole and ten other men standing around and watching. I don't mean to dis' construction workers, really I don't. But imagine how much knitting would get done if there was only one of us knitters actually knitting and ten of us standing around watching? Not much.

So we reached the M-14/96/275 interchange and it had backed up as usual due to construction work. I said, "I think you should get on 275 and take Ann Arbor Road to M-14...it would take maybe 10 minutes more than usual, but you'd get around the construction."

"Naw," said Dan, "I'm going to take 275 to 94 and go that way."

All was well until we were about to Joy Road, when the rot set in. We ran into a huge traffic jam. By the time we were south of Ford Road, we finally saw an electronic sign that explained it all: 275 was closed at Michigan Avenue. Closed. Not narrowed down to one lane. No lanes. None. No wonder we were just crawling along.

Well, we finally reached a turn around and we did just that and headed back to Ann Arbor Road. Dan said, "I guess I should have just taken this to begin with." I practically had to jam my knitting needle through my palm to keep myself from saying, "I told you so!" but I managed to keep my jaws clamped together firmly. There are some thoughts that are better left unexpressed.

By the time we got to Kalamazoo, I was almost done with the dishcloth. I finished it while we visited with the in-laws. My MIL expressed surprise that you could actually knit a dishcloth; all the ones she had ever made were crocheted.

I was kerflumoxed because I have made dishcloths for a long time. She's seen me doing it before. I gave her one. Granted, it was maybe five years ago or something like that.

This was so upsetting to me, that someone would actually not remember that you can knit dishcloths or that they would totally forget getting one from me, especially since I clearly remember her telling me it was the best dishcloth she had ever had and she dearly wished she could have another, that I totally lost my head.

I gave her the one I just finished.

So now I'm knitting another. I've spent some time looking for the patterns for the ones I have invented and I found one and posted it to my pattern blog. I'm still looking for the other one; based on a unit used in a Just One More Row pattern that I posted to the Knit List long ago...it's not in the archive on the Yahoo group site, so I am lost as to where to try next. I lost my knitting files when the zip disks I'd copied them all to got corrupted. Like I said...computers suck.

In other news....

My son is developing "wit". This is an amazing thing to me, since we have been used to his limited verbal skills for some time. I've often wondered just how much he understands of what he says himself, but thankfully, he's proved himself more than intact in the intellect department.

The other day we were watching the Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring. He appears, by the way, to have gotten over the nightmares he had watching this last year. ANYWAY...

Mr. Squatter was watching with all of us as Gandalf, on the top of Isengard, catches a moth and sends it off to fetch Gwahir, the eagle. The moth flutters off, the camera zooms down the tower and into the pit below Isengard where the fires are burning and the orcs are making who knows what....

And Billy said, "Meanwhile, down in the hole...."

It took us all by surprise, so that we laughed like crazy. Who knew...my son, the raconteur.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny how a new hand-knit dishcloth can brighten one's day. Dishcloths are such wonderful almost instant gratification as a knitting project, too.