Blessed coolth....

We've been having unusually cool weather these days, which on Independence Day made for really nice picnics and barbecues. It gave me the chance to open up the house and get the dust I've been pushing around lately out. Unlike Tallguy, I loathe summer and the heat. I don't function at all when it's hot. My mom was the same way; she said she turned into a puddle of ghee when it got above 85 degrees.

Rose Trellis Frogging

Ever since I started the next repeat of the Rose Trellis I've had to make an adjustment to make up for the two extra stitches the chart starts on. At the beginning of the row, I do a knit, then a yarn over, then add two knit stitches, then do the pattern. However, at a certain point, I started adding just one stitch instead of two, moving the pattern over one stitch on all the rows. I noticed that on the left hand side when I added the two stitches there that I had to add three, but it didn't dawn on me that the one stitch short on the right was the reason. It's been nagging me in the past few rows that there is something wrong. So after finding what I was doing wrong I've decided to rip out those incorrect rows back to the beginning of the chart. I'd rather have it right now instead of wrong later when it nags at me at the completion of the shawl.

Sigh. Another part of my lace shawl knitting apprenticeship. Right Master Ted? At least it isn't ripping out 800+ stitches. Only around 300 per row. And it's only *shrug* 12 rows.

Extremities

The new Knitty is up, and while most of the items there are geared for more hip chicks who freeze in offices, there were a few items that I'd like to try out. The Baudelaire socks are quite nummy (the pattern would make a delicious sleeve treatment). The Julie beads make a really interesting textural contrast to smooth glass beads. The Klein Bottle hat looks similar in design to my own Klein Bottle, but mine is done with stockinette on the crown instead of ribbing all the way up. Crosspatch looks like a good hat candidate for the Dulaan project; one could even play around with other mosaic patterns for the sides. I've heard a few complaints that there were no sweaters in this issue, but the issue is dedicated to covering the extremities, not the body. Now to get some toner so that I can print the patterns for my files.