I Thought of a Clever Post Title Earlier But I Forgot It

Sorry I've been silent all week but I haven't had any knitting to show you. I've been doing very little knitting trying to give my hands/wrists/fingers more of a break. I'm still sleeping in my wrist braces most nights and I've been seeing the chiropractor twice a week. It's really helping. Thanks, Dr. Paula! (Having people from all walks of life come in is one of the perks of working in the dive shop.)


In knitting news, I'm still knitting my two daily rows of garter stitch on the Maple Tree Scarf. I think it's gorgeous and can't wait to see the very earliest buds on the branches. I found some bright spring green sock yarn with a tiny bit of burgundy in it. When the maple tree starts to bud, first it gets some maroon colored flower clusters on it so I need to seek out some dark red yarn for the few days that they're on the tree.






I've been knitting, off and on, on the Brangelina charity hat. I seem to be in a knitting black hole. That's when you knit and knit and don't seem to make any progress. The problem is that sooner or later you knit one more row and the project grows about 6" all at once. I'm keeping my eye on it.



Last week Purl Bee, one of the blogs I check daily, had a pattern for a flannel & linen lap duvet (looks like a comforter to me) that really caught my interest. The ones in the pictures were made with lovely soft gray striped flannel (like a pair of favorite pjs) and muted linen. Very soothing, very calming, very luxurious looking--and it was promised to be a 3-hour project. (I love instant gratification in a project.) I went to Hancock Fabrics yesterday late afternoon to seek fabric. They had a whole row of bolts of flannel. Guess how many were muted stripes. If you guessed "none," you're absolutely correct. They had black and white plaids so I choose the most muted one and found a dark gray linen to pair it with. When I got to the cutting table the clerk told me that it was barely 42" wide so I'd be making a pretty narrow blanket. Back to the bolts I went to see if any of the other non-childish, non-blue (navy's okay and I can tolerate that gray blue like the Air Force uniforms, but not all the other royal or sky or robin's egg blues, uck) plaids were the purported 44" wide. The only one that passed the test was brick red, mustard, navy, and sage. I liked but it wasn't what I had in mind. I picked navy linen to go with it. I came home, ironed, cut, pinned, and sewed. Then I turned it right side out, edge-stitched (not in the pattern), and then pinned it every 7" as instructed. By then it was after 11 PM and time for bed. After lunch today I went down and sewed a bar tack at each pin and, voila!, I have a new lap/couch comforter. It's very pretty. I still want to make a muted striped one. And I was looking at a sarong I bought that's gray blue, gold, and white thinking I could retain the short end fringes and make a rayon and linen one. I feel a jag coming on. (I just checked the Purl Bee site to see about ordering the gorgeous gray striped flannel they used. I'm not going to get any, it's $31.50/yard. Of course it's gorgeous and uber-soft, it's a bazillion dollars a yard. I'll be looking at JoAnn on Tuesday to see what they have. I have a coupon.)

I said on my writing blog today that I'd be posting the progression of making my Monster Pouch swap pouch for my Craftser.org partner. Yeah, I lied, I won't be. It's supposed to be a surprise. I promise to take beaucoup photos and post them once the package is delivered. Now, don't pout; I have to have it to her by 3/20 so you won't have to wait long, and neither will she. I will say I am a good ways along in the process and I am totally grooving on what I'm making. I'm even learning a new skill for it so thanks, Iesa, for motivating me to learn something new. (Don't get excited anyone, this is a pocket monster I made last year that wanted a little screen time.)