Capitalism - Feudalism without the King
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Knitting Friday

Sorry I have been so bad with knitting pictures but here's a new one (last Tuesday) of Miss A.

Don't mess with me, I'm in love

She is back from her second visit with Mr. O and yes, she is still smitten.

Life around the old homestead (just like in a Gene Autry movie which, unfortunately at times, are the only movies worth watching in my Verizon movie packet) gets more and more crowded. I've been noticing that the hospice nurse, who used to visit for perhaps 30 minutes, spends over an hour with us now. Things are changing for the worse but still not fast enough for DM.

I tried two new things in knitting this week. (No pictures.) First, I attempted:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-mania-scarf 

It's called the mini mania scarf and supposedly it's a good way to use up different sock yarns. Well, I don't have variegated sock yarn so I Russian joined a few different colored yards of yarn and worked the pattern. Didn't like the results because I find when you change colors in a pattern with knit bumps (as opposed to the smooth right side of stockinette), the look is pretty lousy. Like you should have ditched the project and thrown out your remnants. But if you have variegated sock yarn you may want to try the free pattern. Be warned: there's a lot of hand/wrist motion with YF and YB throughout each row.

I had better luck with:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pi-in-the-sky-ii---seaweed--sand

which is a variation of the famous Elizabeth Zimmerman semi-circle Pi shawl. I've learned a lot about this type of shawl. The principle is that after the top-down cast on and a few increase rows, you work in a pattern for a while (any pattern which fits in the number of stitches you have), then you work a row which doubles your stitches. On these increased stitches you work in the same or new pattern (you can do some simple fudging to get the needed stitch count) until you are ready for another increase row. You repeat this sequence: pattern, increase row, pattern, increase row..... until your shawl is as wide as you want. Then, until you get to your bind off or border area, you work straight (no increases) in a pattern stitch. Once I figured out this concept, the shawl became easy-peasy and I understand why EZ is so respected. (Her circle shawls work on easy principles also.)

Finally, I'm going to make the announcement that I'm dieting. I'm announcing this so I will be shamed if I "fall off the wagon." Dieting and shame; oh, I'm sure that's going to be a winner.

More on this next week: you'll hear either weeping or cheering. Happy knitting.