As you might have noticed if you’ve hung out in this space for any length of time, knitting is my jam. Figuring out knitting patterns sparks joy in the tinkerer lobe of my brain, the part that likes to combine elements into new and interesting configurations and see what happens. I realize not everybody is willing to follow me down some of the rabbit holes I am likely to dive down at odd moments as a result, and that’s cool. To each one’s own jam.
I stopped by my mom’s house Saturday with a bouquet of snazzy two-tone roses and, as a little Mother’s Day surprise, I got her a slice of strawberry topped cheese cake. (What’s the point of living to be 96 years old if you can’t indulge in a slice of cheese cake now and again?)
I had to cut my visit short, though, because my mom had a “date!” She really enjoys attending the concerts of our local symphony orchestra, and the soloist Saturday night was a local boy who had made good singing in the big city. Mom had really wanted to go hear him but she couldn’t get anybody to go with and it was going to be in the newly-completed concert venue, and she’d never been there before. But then she lucked out. A couple she’s friends with were going, but then the wife’s bad back flared up unexpectedly late last week and at the last minute she was unable to attend the concert. She called my mom and asked her if she wanted to go in her place. The husband would pick Mom up and make sure she got in and out safely (The couple have a handicapped sticker for their car because of the wife’s bad back, so they could park close and mom wouldn’t have to hike across a parking lot.) So that was an unexpected Mother’s Day treat.
While I was visiting my mom, she mentioned that her oldest sister’s boy was driving in from New Mexico to visit Wednesday of next week, would spend the night, and wanted to take her and me out to eat that night. We both are looking forward to that.
I’ve been pretty obsessed with the “Waves on a Wine Dark Sea” shawl and have worked on it a lot, carrying it and its bowl from room to room (it’s on my computer desk right now). As I mentioned previously, the color repeats are pretty short on this yarn, and as the “work face” of the shawl lengthens, the stripes get shorter and shorter. Eventually, a stripe won’t make it all the way across, and I’ll be interested to see what that looks like. So far, I like it.
Earlier today, I realized this new pattern is unfortunately biased toward continental knitters and flickers. If you are an American/English style wrapper, all the seed stitch (p1, k1) in this pattern is going to wear you out!
Each time I get to the end of the skein on the Short, Sweet, and Nubby shawl, I’ve got to make sure the new skein I add on is at the right point of the color sequence. I’d been lucky so far, but with the last skein I added on, I ended up having to
cut off about a 2-inch diameter ball’s worth of yarn in order to get to the right point in the color sequence. No problem. I’m fringing the shawl, so that cut off bit will end up as fringe.
I decided to try out this new shampoo and conditioner with tea tree oil and peppermint in to see if it would help with split ends, itchy scalp, hair growth and hair loss. Since I do not blow dry my hair but let it dry in the air after I wash it, I put it in a towel turban for about half an hour to soak up as much water as possible. With the previous shampoo and conditioner, it had been taking about 10 minutes to very carefully comb it out
from the bottom up with a wide-tooth comb. Today, however, my hair was nowhere near as tangled when I combed it out, which I like.
I know “ball” winders are cool and save time, but center-pull cakes are still pull skeins, and pull skeins not only barf yarn, but get these long loops that keep getting wound around the strand of working yarn and snarl things up. Pull skeins are tools of the Devil, y’all.
The Owl Underground 