Knitting adventures

I have been knitting now for FIFTY years (okay, 49 years and 17 days) and while in the past, it was effortless 9two sticks and a string. How hard can it be?), lately it has been just kicking my butt. I have some lovely wool that I had hand dyed for me (really pretty gray, white, green,lavendar) called "Ranier" for a Baby Surprise Jacket. The surprise will be that baby Jack gets this before he is four years old.

I got gauge. It took most of two nights, but I got gauge. (I am obsessive over gauge and I measure and change needles all the time. Little ocd there.) (Okay, big OCD there.)

The pattern starts out easy enough. Cast on 160 stitches, putting a marker on at 35 and 125 (or something like that; I'm not looking at the pattern.) It takes me the better part of the EVENING to get that accomplished.

Then, I knit unil I almost get to the marker, slip stich, knit 2 together and then pass the slipped stich over. Then I knit unitl I get almost to the marker and do the same thing. A person can make A LOT of mistakes in those 160 stitches. But I do finally wrestle the wool to my will. Then I knit a whole row. Just knit. No counting.
THEN on the next (row 3) I do the same knit to the marker, slip, K2together, psso, knit some more and do the same thing over when I get almost to the marker. (Well, except the umbers have changed, which is why it is called a pattern.)

Kncoked me out. My real plan, since I carpool is to do the hard part (that would be the odd row with the slipped stiches and knitting two togethers) at home, leaving just ONE STINKING ROW to placidly knit to and from work. I know that one row done during two 45 minute commutes isn;t much, but it is more than I'd get done if I wasn't doing it.

Maybe next week. The beginning of knitting alsways looks so puny, especially when a person (me) has her face all scrunched up. I like the idea of leaving said knitting on the car seat that LOOKS like something. Although the Baby Surprise Jacket looks a right mess when you do it right. It looks worse when you do it wrong. And since it is sort of an oragami folded bit of work when it is done, I have a pretty good idea that it will look a right mess the entire time.

Now, since I am a Zen knitter (process, not product), this shouldn't bother me. Well, much, at least. (If it was easy, it wouldn't be Zen. It would be Fast. Or Jet.) But I would like the mess of knitting-sitting-on-the-car-seat to at least cause the officers who walk around all day, checing to see that the cars are locked to say "Hey! That looks like a wee baby sweater!" instead of "Boy! Those sticks look sharp! I wonder if you could strangle somebody with that there colored string? Hey...who does this car belong to, anyway?), causing my driver guy to get called over to the squad and questioned, which of course, causes ME to get called over to the squad and questioned and then my knitting skills are called into question.

Well, it will help break up the day. And it's not like I'm trying to smuggle IN the knitting. I ma just taking it out for a little drive. Letting it look out the window.

Threatening it with the side of the road.