And so it goes

I’m packing today. I leave at un ungodly time in the morning to drive to SAW, with Megan and Denny and Natalie.  The rest of the Canadian Contingent will meet us there, having had the good sense to get plane tickets.  Us, we’ll road trip it, with a car full of yarn and silk and knitting… ending up in New Hampshire sometime around suppertime, ready to begin something that’s always wonderful and magic and the best time ever. I’m looking forward to teaching, and speaking, and the Art Fair (free beer!) on the last night.  (All the classes and speaking stuff are booked up, but I’ll be signing books and looking forward to meeting and greeting at the Lettuce Knit booth that evening. Come if you like, I’d love to see you. It’s open to all, if you can get there.)

I mentioned last post that Andrea and I (she’s part of the  Canadian Contingent, making her way there tomorrow) were in a bit of a dead heat to finish matching sweaters by Squam – and today she dropped off her sewing machine, hoping I’d drive it to NH (sewing machines are really hard to pack) and we came clean with each other. Both of us have been busting an epic move to get all these sweaters done, but because she has little kids and I have Sock Summit, both of us failed to compete at the Olympic level.   This morning over coffee we told all.

(Sweater photographed amongst the annuals that I have to plant before I leave tomorrow. I’m so screwed.)
Incredibly, we’re at about the same spot.  We’ve knit the arms of Acer, both of us, and are now plowing through the body. Mostly through the fronts and back (knit as one piece) and almost ready to divide.  (Actually, she was a little farther than me this morning, but I knit while I had my hair cut at lunchtime, and I think I’m caught up.)

Andrea has the privilege of a flight tomorrow, where presumably someone else will be driving, and I have the car (where I will be driving) but both of us still have high hopes of new sweaters at SAW.

We know that’s delusional, and I think we’re both still bringing buttons.

Too be continued…

61 thoughts on “And so it goes

  1. I love this story. At least you’re evenly matched and it’s a fair fight. Have fun at SAW. It sounds so wonderful.

  2. Have a wonderful time. Work can be pleasure. I know your knitting is well-planned.

  3. I love this. It makes me giggle and hope that you will prevail – both with the sweater and the annuals. Carry on.

  4. Oh, Harlotta, how I love you. In a non-creepy way, of course. This post is just so…so…*you*. (And at the same time, I completely identify with the delusional sense of one’s own productivity. I think I’d be depressed if I didn’t have it.)
    Good luck with the sweater and bon voyage!

  5. Denny I know about, but are you saying that Megan and Natalie don’t drive, either?
    This is a flaw in your planning.

  6. The sweater looks great with the annuals. if it doesn’t turn out for any reason, you could drape it on a scarecrow and put it in the garden. Just joking — I bet you’ll both be wearing them and taking pics this week. Have fun!

  7. Great sweater and lovely flowers. Enjoy your trip and the workshop and wear the new sweater on the way home 🙂

  8. The sweater looks fabulous, but seriously – it’s 90 and humid and right now I’m having trouble picking up a wool sock to kitchener the toe. Yarn does not appeal in this heat, and that’s saying something. In fact, that’s saying a LOT!
    Have a great time. Wish I could be there.

  9. I wish I had the focus to work seriously on my current sweater project – I’ve been completely overwhelmed with a bad case of startititis lately, and I just haven’t got anything finished in ages.

  10. Oh, look at that gorgeous blue… Have a wonderful time! New Hampshire is such a pretty state, and add in knitters and what greater perfection could you ask for. (Wondering if my old house in Merrimack still looks the same.)

  11. Husband calls me a pessimist; I prefer the term realist, yet I too frequently catch myself counting on finishing projects at unimaginable speed. We go on vacation on next month, for a few weeks, driving to the DC area amongst others, and although I now am mother to 5 (yes, 5!) boys, one of them barely a month old, I find myself beginning to pack what most certainly will be way too many projects.
    After all, I reason, I’m not driving…and I can knit while nursing.

  12. But what about the blocking before you sew up? You have completely converted me to wet blocking before sewing up, as you can see. I think this will be a very fine excuse indeed!

  13. I love that yarn. And I’m so glad I’m not the only one who tries to cram 10 pounds of meat into a 6 ounce cup. I find I’m doing things 3x as fast at the last minute. Now, if I could start out at that speed, my projects, including planting, might get done with time to spare.

  14. On Friday I left for my trip to St. Maarten’s (listening to the waves and drinking a pina colada right now) and was planting sweet basil in the garden just before leaving. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day…

  15. I love that you are both at the same place and yet still have high hopes of finishing soon. I had the hardest time leaving the house with enough projects when I was going to take friends to the Portland yarn crawl and I was driving. Seems the knitting thing and the delusional thing may go hand in hand. At least it gave my friends something to laugh about. Hope you have a great time and thanks for all the Sock Summit work. You are a treasure so take a bow now only not while you are driving.

  16. Great minds think alike: what Presbytera said. Also, throw $10 @ a 12-year-old in your neighborhood for the flowers. Safe travels!

  17. Such beautiful yarn! I have full faith in you that you will finish at SAW/ What were you thinking, agreeing to drive with two people who don’t drive?? Have fun. Wish I was going….. Ca. is too far away for this one.

  18. I love your relentless optimism! That blue is going to be so pretty on you, I can see where it’d inspire optimism.

  19. That shade of blue is so beautiful, like a late twilight sky that is punctuated with white clouds. Where did you get it?

  20. I love that in terms of speedy sweater knitting handicapping, Sock Summit = having little kids!

  21. Have lots of fun at Squam! So sad that I can’t be there this year. I was lucky enough to go last year and it was wonderful…the classes, the camaraderie, the knitting…and I got to meet you and Denny. I’ll just have to catch up on my knitting at home and dream…..

  22. I’ll see you tomorrow evening and look forward to having a beer with you on the last night!
    Wishing you a totally safe and relatively traffic-free journey.

  23. Even if you’re driving, you can always knit at the stop lights or in traffic. Not that I do that. Not me.
    Just kidding…have a safe trip!

  24. Have a great time at SAW. It’s always nice to know I am not the only delusional knitter out there. But, if anyone can finish the sweater it will be you!

  25. What do they say when you get to the border, in your car full of yarn and fiber and knitters and, now, a sewing machine???

  26. gorgeous yarn, beautiful pattern — whenever it’s done, it will be fabulous. but you really MUST find a driver to share the wheel on road trips.

  27. Pray tell, how does one knit while getting their hair cut? First, there’s the cape. Second, the need to hold the head just so. Third, the cut hairs that fly everywhere. I’m desperately due for a haircut so am very curious to know your trick(s).

  28. “We know that’s delusional, and I think we’re both still bringing buttons.” Hope springs eternal! And it would be really terrible to end up with a finished sweater and no buttons to sew onto it. Safe travels!

  29. You got your hair cut? thought you could slide that right by us, didn’t you?

  30. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I hemmed my (ugly, ugly) putrid peach polyester bridesmaid’s dress for my sister’s wedding on the plane from SF to North Carolina. Unfortunately, I actually had to appear in public with that dress, while my sister wore a beautifully modern and sleek white wedding gown. Too bad you couldn’t leave the driving to someone else so you could get some good knitting time in on your trip.

  31. plant the flowers, knit the sweater. as much as we would like- dirt doesn’t knit.
    lovely, enjoy!

  32. You seriously knit while getting your hair cut? I wish I had the guts. My hair person would probably smack me.

  33. aawww I love this story. I’m sure that whenever, however and wherever the sweaters get done they’ll be beautiful. xx

  34. Like Susan, I’m trying hard to wrap my head around how one would knit while having a haircut?
    Of course, this comes from someone who doesn’t like food around my knitting, so the thoughts of gobs of little hairs getting in it gives me the willies!

  35. Everything about this post appeals to me, especially after reading about Andrea and hitting her blog to read her wonderful retelling of The Trip. You are a bright spot every day-when there’s no fresh post I reread old ones. My knitting is so full of new projects, I have no circular needles not in use! Hope all is well in Harlotland!

  36. This on-the-road competition knitting just kills me..and here it takes me a year or more to finish a hat…while you and others knit all the time…probably in the loo too.

  37. I got a pedicure last night (first one in 4 months!) and was cursing myself because I left my knitting in the car. By the time I realized it I was ankle deep in the swirly water. It definitely was enjoyable but I could’ve gotten in 45 minutes of knitting. Bah!

  38. Gorgeous sweater AND flowers. And being delusional about how much work something takes to finish is probably one of the main reasons anyone ends up having extra kids. (We loves them, but they are time sucker experts.) Have an amazing trip!

  39. I *Love* the color. How do you knit during a haircut? My knitting would be full of gray, brown & pink bits.

  40. Yes, please – explain how one knits while getting one’s hair cut…..we are all dying to understand the logistics.

  41. Those aren’t straights you have the Acer on, are they? (I am doing mine on circs…farther on the body than yours, but no sleeves yet. So you have a much better chance of being done in the foreseeable future. Hang onto those buttons!)

  42. My in progress sweater is nearly 2 years old. Hoping to finish the shoulders before I hit the 2 year mark or at least before the baby is born in October.
    Long day of travel here too, bus, plane, car will get home about 12 hours after I leave my mom’s.

  43. I love the buttons being packed – I brought an extra skein of sock yarn to michigan last weekend but never got to it! So impressed that you can knit even while getting a haircut –
    Squam Lake is lovely, I visited a few times as a teenager. Enjoy!

  44. At least you’re not having to spin the yarn as you knit, that puts you ahead of the game. That yarn is going to look marvelous on you.

  45. Is there some improvised cable action going on down the body of the sweater? Or just a trick of the photo?

  46. Just saw your Tweet about shopping with a Size 0. I feel your pain. There is a whole mall I avoid because it is the land of 0’s & micro-petites!
    Not only did I not buy anything there, I came home in tears (and I feel I generally have a fairly good body image!). But I did find out that those fold-over yoke sweat pants will make even a 0 look like the back of an aircraft carrier (and just think what they would do for a “normal size”!). ;-D
    Enjoy SAW! It looks great on this hot, sticky day in Virginia!

  47. Yeah, but who is going to water the new transplants while you’re gone? And, I second Wonderer and Presbyteria–lol.
    I needed a laugh today, my 19 yo son had surgery yesterday. That first shock of seeing him all white and scary-looking in recovery, ack! Anyway, he’s doing great today– we’re watching The Emperor’s New Groove and laughing (the best medicine!).
    Have fun on your trip!

  48. You are so my hero. Knitting during a haircut, you own no less??! I’m completely impressed. My dream is to be able to knit while I get my teeth cleaned. There no real conversation happening and I’ve always considered it a waste of prime knitting time.

  49. What a bad influence you are, I followed your link to ravelry and saw the pretty pattern you’re making and just had to get it. Now I have to figure out what pretty color of cascade 220 to make it in. Thanks for the inspiration, trying to restrain myself from casting on immediately as soon as I get yarn (my ever expanding stash thanks you too btw :-p ). Hope uou have a fabulous trip

  50. I know that it is completely unfair and unrealistic to have the expectations that I have for myself as a knitter – and for you as my guru. I just want you to know, that when days go by and I don’t hear from you, I have a little knitters crisis… Yes, it’s true. A knitters crisis because I worry that something has happened to my guru. I think that your posts are poetic. They give me strength and support and encouragement in ways that other things don’t. Perhaps that sounds silly. I simply wanted you to know that I resonate with your world view and that your missives tickle me to no end. Best wishes for a successful trip (and of course, more posts for the rest of us!)

  51. It was great to hear you speak again at SAW. I just wish I had signed up early enough to get into one of your classes (though I did love all of the classes I was in).

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