Popcorn Shrimp For Breakfast

I woke up craving breaded shrimp to the point I could almost taste it.  I had a package of frozen popcorn shrimp in the freezer, so I fired up the oven and cooked it, snarfed them down with tartar sauce, and it was so good.  Had some cole slaw with.  Thing is, whenever I strongly crave a food like that, I choose to interpret it as my body’s way of telling me it needs some nutrient(s) that food contains, and I try to obtain and eat that food if I can.

I finished the body portion of my modified Cable Edge Shawl yesterday and I’ve started putting the edging on.   When you finish the body, you don’t cut the working yarn.  Right after the last stitch of the body, you do a knitted cast on of 22 stitches and start the edging, joining it right onto the body of the shawl (at left) with ssk’s.  You have to have a long (32 inches or more) circular needle to knit this shawl because when you start the edging, you have the 260 live stitches of the bottom edge of the body, plus the 22 edging stitches you cast on at the end of that row all on one needle. The edging pattern has a 16-row repeat.  I quickly discovered that there are two rows that have a yo (yfwd) right before a C6B cable cross, and you have to pay close attention that you don’t drop the yo as you are shifting the three stitches off onto the cable needle to hold behind your work.  Found that out the hard way.  Because it’s lace, and the lace has a scalloped edge, the number of stitches in the edging varies from row to row, so if you do drop that yo, you’ll catch it on the very next row — but it’s still a PITA to have to go back and fix.

I am definitely going to have to get another couple packages of dental floss, what with two shawls needing lifelines.  I go get my teeth cleaned Monday; I may ask the hygienist if she has some free samples she’ll give me.  I’ve got a bunch of other running around I’ve got to do Monday as well, including a Walmart run.  Monday will be a busy day.

I can’t work on the Cable Edged Shawl at my computer any more because it’s too hard to consistently mark my place in the edging pattern when the pattern is being displayed on a computer screen.

I scrounged out a UFO* (a small baby afghan) I had tucked in the bag I take to knitting group, got out my big ball bowl, and I’m working on that at the computer now.  It’s a baby afghan sized to work with a baby carrier/car seat.

(A crib sized afghan is just too big and impractical.)  It’s a really simple pattern (the body pattern is just a two-row repeat– TV knitting at its finest!) with stockinette stripes on one side (above) and a pebbly texture on the other (at right).

The picture  above right is more color true to the shade of minty green yarn I’m using.   It’s an acrylic yarn — I never use anything but acrylic yarn for baby stuff.  In the first place, it’s hypoallergenic.  In the second place, it doesn’t stain, and in the third place, it’s machine washable.  Besides, the baby’s not going to be able to wear whatever it is for very long anyway before it’s outgrown. I can’t see spending big bucks on some fancy-schmantzy, “artisanal” snob yarn, plus the time and effort to make the garment, and then have the little tyke come unfed on it and stain it down the front.  And what mom with a new baby that’s keeping her up all night is going to appreciate having baby stuff with “special care instructions” to hand wash it in Woolite in the sink and spread flat to dry?  (or worse, have to pay for and fool with having to have it dry cleaned!)

This yarn I’m using came in a big one-pound skein.  I don’t like to cut the big skeins up to make smaller balls unless it has already been been knotted in the skein (which happens),  but I lucked out and there were no knots in this skein.   Even though it winds up into a huge ball (whence the need for a “big ball bowl” in the first place), an unknotted skein means I can make the whole afghan from one continuous, unbroken strand of yarn. Besides, I have a big ball bowl . . .

 

*UFO – UnFinished Object.