Status 2: Blankie

Status: Unfinished

Katie: Still Pregnant, and hopefully fixing to stay that way.

Number of stitches on the needle: Approximately 850. I’m not counting those wee bastards again.

Number of skeins so far: 5 and 3/4

Number of skeins remaining: A rather comforting 4 and a quarter.

Number of rounds to knit before I start the edging: Zero! I actually should have started the edging last night, but suffered a crisis of faith in the edging I chose, and had to pick another. The one I really liked was worked close, that means that there’s lace patterning every row, and I started it, realized that it took all of my focus to do it, and was really, really slow, and imagined my future, and got promptly off the one way trip to crazyville.  I chose another, but it was charted in the wrong direction, so I spend some time figuring out how to photograph the chart, flip it in my photo software, convert it into a pdf, and get it into my ipad where I can use it.

Number of foul words used while figuring that out: Approximately 346.

Number of repeats I have to work to edge the blanket: About sixty – plus whatever fancypants manoeuvre I’ll figure out to get round the corners. (I’ll have it figured by the time I get there, I think.)

Attitude of knitter: Less excellent, but I think I can fake it. (Would someone please go to the beer store?)

78 thoughts on “Status 2: Blankie

  1. hmmmmm Not possible to work it as written but attach it to the other side? Before this happens to me on a project with a mandatory completion date, maybe I’ll just try something like that.

  2. Can’t get to the beer store but just came home with a large bottle of wine. Will that do? Hang in there. You are almost at the end and so is the Mom.

  3. Just contemplating the “modification” to your pattern brought on a migraine. Now the baby really needs to stay put for a little while longer.

  4. (BTW, Love that the little pictures which asked me to touch the ‘woman’ show a figure in the dress. But I know she’s wearing pants and a cape….)

    Re: the border. A moderate level of sanity is usually a very good choice. Knit on!

  5. I’m pretty sure I can’t be trusted to go to The Beer Store.

    I just went to the mall, where the supermarket is, to get an already-cooked chicken, mostly for my Very Elderly Cat whose-appetite-is-flagging-but-dammit-he-needs-the-calories-because-uberdammit-neither-of-us-is-ready-for-this-to-be-the-end!!!!!, and he’ll happily eat whatever I hand-feed him.

    I came home with a PeeGee Hydrangea, a blueberry bush, and a bottle of sherry.

    I’m such a Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad kitty-mom. ~hangs head in shame~

    (There are chicken thighs for him nuking in the microwave right now. Step away from those pitchforks and flaming torches — do it NOW!)

  6. Beer!!? You haven’t got time to sip let alone slurp…

    I’m drinking for you (trying to be helpful!). You can have beer to wet the baby’s head (hopefully after blanket edging trauma is complete).

    Good luck, knit on x

  7. It is so frustrating when an edging goes the wrong way.
    There was one project where I’d narrowed it down to 2-3 edgings, and then realized that only one went the “right” way for what I was making. decision made!!

    the blanket will be lovely.

  8. I won’t say anything about 60 repeats being ALOT…instead I’ll have a beer for you and pray that Katie stays preggers for a while longer 🙂

    • 1) Many hugs to you, and please don’t hate me forever;
      2) A (space – really) LOT — truly, it’s important to many* of us still clinging to the diminishing shreds of English language usage (*many = me + is-there-anyone-else-out-there-??)
      3) I agree completely, other than the grammatical hoohah.
      🙂

    • Oh, yes, we’re out here. My pet peeve is people who use an apostrophe in plurals. I don’t think there are any singular nouns that use ‘s. However, as a fast typist, in the case of ALOT, I bet the space is missing because the typist’s fingers didn’t quite hit the space bar. I do that.

    • Helen, sometimes people forget that we are all guests in Steph’s virtual living room. I’m sure that none of these fine people would presume to correct your spelling or grammar were they sitting next to you on her chesterfield. Please accept my small virtual gift of popcorn to go with your beer.

  9. Poor Katie! Here we are wishing this very pregnant woman to stay that way a while longer. Knit on!! I may hit the ice cream in place of the beer – will that help??

  10. Have you tried DocScanHD on your iPad? After scanning you can open the chart or the whole project in KnitCompanion, where you can invert the image.

  11. I will go for you! Problem is, by the time I go to the store and make the delivery you will be done with the blankie!! Can I drink…two for you? What kind should I get?….
    An ale or a lager perhaps….what about a stout????

    bjr

    • Going with local, run-of-the-mill sherry, myself. Was about to suggest you go for ‘your namesake’, then put my glasses on. Never mind! 🙂

  12. Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby has good info about taking your edging around the corner in the back section about designing your own shawl. I used it to put a leaf edging around a square bread basket liner and was quite impressed when it worked perfectly. Basically, you use some of the edge stitches at the corner two or three times.

  13. I cheated on the baby blanket I just mailed. Garter stitch, on the diagonal, with a YO after the first stitch on each row. Very little thinking needed, and it worked up quickly. (It also isn’t in pastel colors.)

  14. I’m struggling with the knitter’s attitude right now! I am in the process of discovering that I am definitely a garment knitter… Struggling with the endless rows of a shawl…

  15. I will fly to Wisconsin for some New Glarus beer and then fly it to you in Canada….which I probably can’t do. ::sigh:: Such a tragedy. New Glarus beer is delightful.

  16. Fixing to…. Proof that you have traveled to Texas one too many times! Lol. Although we say “Fixin’ to”. Best of luck with the blanket. It’s beautiful!

  17. Not that I went to term, but I think Katie is hoping you finish the blanket very soon. She is in the very uncomfortable stage now!

  18. Spiced rum, yo!

    Mojo for blankie completion, immediately followed by safe arrival of recipient and easy time for Katie.

  19. For me, it’s the wine store, not the beer store (too much yeasty flavor in beer for my taste, I guess). Totally understand the sentiment, even if I’d choose anothermental lubricant.

  20. No words of advice, just some encouragement.
    The blanket is wonderful. You are wonderful. You can do this. Knit now, beer later. Besides would you really want to torment a pregnant lady with unfinished knitting AND drinking in front of her?
    P.S. I got the balloons- so congratulations! YOU WILL PREVAIL!

  21. I once knitted a ‘Greek Key’ pattern for a border on socks. It shouldn’t have been difficult, except I was knitting the dark squares on the chart light, and the light squares dark.
    I didn’t think about figuring out how to make the computer help me. ( That would indeed have caused swearing , drinking, and throwing expensive computer related objects around the room, I fear). I ended up getting out the old graph paper and colored pencils. I found it interesting, in retrospect, that my mind couldn’t easily ‘translate’ the chart for me.
    Congratulations on using technology to solve the problem.Just reading your description makes me a little dizzy.

    • I’m not sure, because I can’t quite visualize it. But I think that on a Greek Key, if you turn the chart upside down, the light and dark squares should be Iin the right place. Excluding any borders, of course.

  22. Did email work for your chart?
    1. scan chart at some reasonable ppi,
    2. open it in your photo program and “flip horizontal”
    3. save as .pdf or .jpg
    4. attach it to an email to yourself
    5. check your email on your ipad.
    bob’s your uncle: chart!
    or replace step one with: take a photo with your phone…

  23. I too will go to the beer store for you here in Mexico. How about a nice Modelo? dark or light? Doesn’t matter I will drink either/both for you so you can knit. You should be so virtually drunk by now. Keep on clickin’ my sistah

  24. I’m in a similar situation with the shawls for my daughter’s wedding. I finally finished drawing and charting the main rose for Sara’s bridal shawl, now I’ve got to do one for the maid of honor. I’ve yet to get to cast on for my massive bridal attire, and now the wedding has been moved up to mid October to accommodate the groom’s stepmother.
    I wish that I could knit as lighting fast as you! Sadly, I’ve become much slower over the last few years because of fibromyalgia and degenerative bone and joint disorders. PLEASE wish me luck.

  25. Can’t drink right now. OK, I am drinking, I’m not drinking booze. Plenty of water, lemonade, iced tea and mocktails so I could definitely be trusted to bring you beer! The blanket is beautiful and the edging is going to be great.

  26. On your mac, the app that opens stuff you leave on your desktop is called Preview. It has all of the tools that you need to crop, resize, flip and more.
    To get the chart onto your desktop-shift command four and then use the cross hairs to make a box around your chart. this will place it on your desktop. “flip horizontal” is in the drop down menu called tools. The file menu has the comands for exporting as a pdf. I was a trainer for apple. ask away, I am up late.

  27. I use the app “To PDF” to turn photos into PDFs then I open them in Good Reader on the iPad for knitting. Good luck with the blanket, it’s looking marvelous!

  28. The blanket pix is really well done, love the flowers and the nice woody table top…and mostly the blanket.

    hmm, a brew pub here (Russian River Brew Pub) probably has a brew for you – names like, redemption, perdition, erudition, benediction, sanctification, supplication, damnation, consecration (to name a few). one could probably pick a pint for each stage of the blankie…but I’d never get anything finished.

    Knit on.

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