Knit a little, rip a little

I didn't get a whole lot of productive knitting done over the long weekend. Because it's small, compact and a relatively easy pattern I took along my red alpaca/tencel cable scarf that I started months and months ago. Luckily I had written down that easy 8 row pattern I designed since I had forgotten just what I was doing.

So I took it out on the very full flight down to San Diego. I had a window seat, figuring I'd have that extra inch or so for my knitting elbows and yarn. Worked great, I was knitting happily away while the guy in the middle kept oozing farther and farther into my space. I did the first set of cables, then the next, knit knit knit. Then I dropped my row counter. Oh crap. I thought it fell behind me, but couldn't see. It was the green one, that you press the top and it advances, and you can lock it in place. I did as much looking as I could in the cramped spaces but then gave it up. I decided not to continue, since I didn't want to screw up the scarf. I put away the knitting and got out a book.

While the rest of the passengers deplaned, I searched for my counter. C'mon, it's bright green, I should have been able to see it. But even with the help of one of the flight attendants it was nowhere to be found. Good bye little counter, I enjoyed knitting with you.

Saturday morning my mom and I went to a little shop in the village, Helga's Yarn Boutique, to get a replacement row counter. Believe it or not, there was not a single solitary skein of yarn that I was interested in buying in that shop. I'm not sure that's happened before. I did get a new counter, the big red unlocking one, after waiting about 10 minutes for the proprietor to get it for me. Great, back in business.

I was too busy or too tired or too drunk to knit the rest of the time I was there, until I got on the plane to return to Oakland. I took a window seat again, thinking the same thoughts about space, etc. The plane took off and -- the knitting was in my bag above the seat, and two sleeping people kept me from getting it. Sigh. No knitting on that flight.

Last night I figured I'd better get it out, determine which row I was on, and set the counter correctly. That was easy enough. Then I knitted a section. Then I looked back on what I had knitted on the plane in the first place, and realized that I had knit the second left cable backward. I stared at it, thought I could live with it, blocked it out of my mind, and knit another row. Stared some more, then decided I had to frog it. Rip rip rip, three sections torn out, right back to where I had started on Friday. Found some smaller needles to get it back in place, switched to the 6's I was using, re-knit the cables and finished that section and part of the next.

I'm glad I fixed it. There's already one mistake waaaaaay back at the beginning, in the center cable, that I know I can live with. A second goof would have been too much. So, total knit over my travel weekend: none.

I put on my neverending superlong wrap and I think I'm almost done. Maybe another inch and then I'll do the final border. Yay, I'm really tired of that project. I'm almost looking forward to learning how to block.

Stay tuned, a report of the rest of the weekend, and the race, should be coming up soon. Ish.