Packing Pins

Somewhere – there are some knitters who have wondered how interesting this baby blanket drama is going to get. There have been some doozies over the years, so I can see how at this point, the news that a baby blanket was underway would be chum in the knitterly waters for you lot, but here it is – other than not being as far along as I’d like, everything is just fine. The pattern I figured for myself is working well, I’ve made no major mistakes,  I miscalculated on the yarn but I found more, and – get this, those of you who were wondering in which way this thing would get interesting…. that yarn was shipped to me from the US, and in a remarkably efficient display by both the American and Canadian Postal services,  it spent forty-six seconds at customs, and arrived yesterday – well in time for me to wind and put it in my suitcase so that I could take it with me to Vancouver this weekend.  In fact, here I sit, in the airport lounge, headed for Knit City, working away on the thing, and it looks to me like it’s going to come down to a good old fashioned sprint.

The deadline for this thing is Tuesday – and honestly, I’m not sure I can make it, and for a while there, I wondered how I’d miscalculated so badly.  It is unlike me to a) have a drama-free baby blanket, or b) not start one of these things in enough time to finish, and then I remembered.  I broke my wrist! I was in a cast! There was drama – heaps of it.  It was just quiet, horrible drama rather than entertaining, exciting drama.  It explained everything. It’s not that this hasn’t had it’s problems – they were just on the front end.  Refreshing, really. Now it’s down to a push to the end – today’s a travel day, and I’m hoping to get through the border, because the edging is enormous. With a little luck, if I apply myself and stay on it, I might maybe, possibly be able to block this thing in my hotel room.

I packed pins.

(PS. Deadline knitting can still be dramatic. Don’t lose hope. Something terrible could happen at any moment. )

60 thoughts on “Packing Pins

    • Well said. No drama is fine. I don’t need a call from work tonight saying the night clerk isn’t going to show (which is what I suspect)…..

  1. It’s nice for the rest of us to know that even a Knitting Whiz like you can still have moments of unexpected moments of drama in the knitting. The drama keeps us all humble, and the successes give us all something to strive for! Knit on!

  2. Safe yravels, Steph. You will finish the baby blanket in time! Hope your wrist and thumb are feeling a lot better. Enjoy your trip to Van.

    • Because the wedding is in late-Sept. in Toronto, when and where there’s a chance of a chill in the air, perhaps the Love and Darkness shawl that Steph knit Aug.-Sept. is for Sam. Done and dusted, as Stephanie would say.

  3. You’ve had enough drama thankyewverymuch. My wish for you is to get the blanket done, in time, in drama free and dare I say, boring bliss.

  4. If you have one of those travel carts pick you up at the gate you can knit through the Vancouver airport, too! Can’t wait to see the finished project.

  5. I’m standing by with my popcorn, confident that you won’t disappoint.

    There are still plenty of entertaining options: weather, lost luggage, hotel moths, overzealous housekeepers, and, of course…early babies.

  6. I’m so glad your wrist has healed well.
    Over the weekend I stupidly and severely cut the pad of my left index finger (needed 5 stitches), which is the finger I use to move the working yarn when I knit. I had just bought a needle I needed to start a “fast” baby sweater for a dear friend whose 4th baby is due Oct. 25, but I was going to be “early” with this one.
    Hahahaha, responded the fates!
    At least she does have hand knits from the other babies, and I had already finished a hat and socks, so the new baby won’t be knit-less. 😉

  7. Given history, the real drama here would be an unexpectedly finished-on-time blanket and a punctual baby! Best wishes coming from the ‘other’ Vancouver!

  8. You’ve had enough drama pre-loaded into all of this by the broken wrist. I have every faith that you’re going to finish this, block it in your hotel room, and be ready to rock on Tuesday with it.

  9. You’re knitting the border and edging on a extra-jumbo-sized baby blanket while traveling? The options for knitting drama are endless! Presbytera listed some, but not all. . .there’s also turbulence, airline food, rusting pins, etc., etc., etc. I think I’ve got time to make nachos while this all plays out!

  10. Someday you’re going to be involved in a bizarre, singular natural phenomenon involving a small plague tornado of wool moths while working outside on a project like this. No scientist in the world will be able to explain it, but after the dust settles your readers will all collectively shake their heads and say that if it was going to happen to anyone, it was going to happen to you.

  11. Oh Stephanie, I wish you absolutely no drama at all with this blanket! It’s gorgeous, and will be finished. 🙂 You do not need more drama!

  12. Knit like the wind. After today’s horrible day (USA), I wish you clear sailing. I’ll be working out my frustration with a second sock. And a glass of wine. And maybe some junk food. And Hulu.

  13. I’m now ready to defend those knitters among us who regularly have more than one project going at a time. A lot of my knitting is mindless, while my mind wanders off in other directions, but the casting on requires great concentration. I have to plan a cast on for a time when I will not be interrupted, hence, I often start the next project while I still have an unfinished project in the knitting basket. (Or maybe two or three.)

  14. Earlier this month I bought a small thing from a woman in Ontario. She offered four day post. Excellent.

    It shipped quickly, crossed the border quickly, and sat for two weeks in customs in Chicago!

    Argh. You are truly blessed that your yarn (actually a more necessary item) arrived so fast!

  15. You’re messing with us, right? Quietly. It’s just sitting there in the back of the picture of a white. Baby. Shawl.

    A cup of coffee.

    No wonder that when you said “I wonder if I’ll make it through the border” I thought you meant Canada/US.

  16. Wasn’t there a blanket once, or something like that, where you had to race to meet someone literally at the border in order to get some yarn that they had? I can’t remember the project you needed it for, but that was one of the great stories you’ve told of knitterly luck and of finding the right person/dye lot at the right time!

  17. “I’m hoping to get through the border…”
    Yeah, I hope Customs and Border Protection doesn’t give you any…oh, wait…the *other* kind of border! Maybe we need border protection on our knitting too!

  18. This is a non-emergency. Someone will keep Baby warm and safe. He or She will not ever, ever remember that their blankie showed up a day late. It will be beautiful, baby will be loved. That’s all that matters. Everything in our lives should have this urgency.

  19. Those knitting needles really set off that gorgeous yarn nicely.

    I ran the ends in tonight on my own baby blanket so that I could officially finish it the day our grandson Spencer arrived. I cannot wait to fly to go see him and wrap him up in it.

  20. Safe travels. Please be careful…and if something hurts, stop. You may be out of the cast…but while that wrist put energy into healing, other areas may have lost tone.

    I have a friend who is still recuperating from the impact of Olympic knitting while home ill.

  21. Good on ya for healing up so fast. I was wondering if you had considered that 9-letter deadline that I have a hard time getting my head around.

    85 Days!

  22. A knitting student of mine finished a beautiful white lace shawl, and then dumped a full cup of coffee across it, meaning she had to wash it in the Panera ladies room sink and reblock it and get it dry in time for the going away party. The knitting gods are nothing if not creative.
    Julie in San Diego.

  23. Pretty pretty blanket. And I think the wrist debacle counts is worth at least two drama credits – sooo, this blanket might be good for a sprint. Can’t wait to see it. Another heirloom for the family.

  24. Hi Steph, I’m putting this here instead of with the post it belongs with because I know you’ll remember the scarves that were my Mom’s that I gave to you and Debbie and Judith. Totally understand missing Mom. Hugs, and see you at Madrona in February.

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