Film at Eleven

Well I'm cranky, there is just no other way to say it. Cranky with a smile however---- it is knitting crazyness and no matter the cause, well it's still knitting. I mean how bad can it be? (Don't ask).

I'm having camera woes, it will all be sorted out in a day or so but not having pics makes me a bit out of sorts. But I'll catch up, really.

Saturday I finished a sweet little preemie bonnet in off white cotton for my WeeAngels. It is the sweetest little thing, no need for ribbing on this one and it is worked in a 2x2 checkerboard with a pom pom on top.

Then I was SO excited to take the last OnLine sock off the needles, woo hoo! The grafting on the toe went just perfectly, I think the Moon is in Aquarius or something because the toe finished up in lightning speed and I "didn't have to hold my tongue just right"! A finished pair, nothing makes a knitter feel quite so perky I don't think.

My cranky woes stem from the EZ PI Shawl I'm doing with the Elizabeth's Year/Kelley Petkun group on Yahoo. I just fried my ever lovin' little brain out on the cast on. It was HORRIBLE! I sat over those needles (and crochet hook at times) trying and trying and trying to work through a circular cast on. I think at the end of the evening last night (way later than I care to think about) I had tried two kinds of circular cast ons, knitting a little square and picking up around it, crocheting around a ring and picking up, and a few others too silly to mention. When I finally took my sorry self to bed I had bupkis, nada, squatto, zilch. Defeated and cranky I wandered over to (yet again) Google circular knitting cast on's and I found a method I had not tried and that I thought sounded pretty straightforward. I am, if nothing else, a straightforward girl after all. When I got up this morning first thing and the fried brain was as fresh as it was going to get I cast on and gave it a try. The method I used was the Belly Button cast on, brilliantly invented by Rosemarie Buchanan at Two Sticks and Some String. I am now (with a heavy sigh and much joy) off and running on the Pi Shawl. Thanks Rosemarie, you were my saving grace----- and that's a fact! I was hoping to have the shawl and the new gorgeous socks to alternate with during July, I may have to give up that goofy notion straight away! Dear (helpful) Elizabeth over on the Yahoo group thoughtfully (!!!!) actually did the math (well, you know that is one thing I am less than likely to do--- EVER!) and to complete the PI in a month it will require knitting well over a thousand stitches a day to complete that baby. That just sounds so much better to me than the Absolute Truth of 1900.5 stitches per day, I think that qualifies as "well" over 1000. Blissfull socks at this point seem like sheer lunacy! Regardless, I'm knitting away and hope to move past Cranky and on to Bliss in short order. I have to, I figure that Elizabeth Zimmerman herself would absolutely haunt me if I was less than Zen.

You will perhaps notice that I did not don my gear and lace my shoes this morning heading out into the early morning for my power walk, and my beloved podcast listen on the way back. Cranky Number Two (in a big way) is that I have somehow fluffed up my achilles tendon and it is now really bothersome. It happened about a week and a half ago and I thought I could just keep on walking and try to take it easy when I could----- i.e. ignore it---- and this plan of action did not serve me well at all. I've not walked since Friday and have been trying to give the tendon a rest. I'm hoping (for the sake of my netherregion) that I'll be back out on the pavement very, very soon.

Please remember WeeAngels------ and pass on the word, I appreciate it!