Productive. That’s the best way to describe this weekend. I hope all of you in the US had a lovely Memorial Day weekend.

Thursday, I was productive in the fiber acquisition department. I picked Dawn up from her house about 9:45am and we arrived at The Fold about quarter past 10. I had a budget, so I had to be very selective as to what my purchases were. I oogled over fiber and acquired some lovely hand painted merino/kid mohair (70/30) roving by Blue Moon Fiber Arts
and some merino in Cranberry.
I decided to be brave and try spinning merino. I’ve been spinning Corriedale and Coopworth exclusively, so I thought I should challenge myself. And I’ve been oohing and aahing the Merino fibers I’ve seen all over the web.
In addition to fiber, I purchased an extra bobbin for Matilda, a copy of
Spin-Off Winter 2004 and The Knitter’s Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements, so that I can figure out how much handspun yarn I will need for specific items.

Today, at lunch, I started spinning some of my new cranberry merino yarn. It’s definitely a more challenging fiber to work with than the Corriedale that I’ve grown used to. I’m spinning it much finer than the Corriedale but that’s just how it feels like it wants to be spun. I’m planning on using the finished yarn for a Christmas gift. My 2-ply sample is beautiful. I think it’s going to be a fun fiber to spin.

Thursday after I arrived home from our shopping trip, I decided I need to start plying the Sandy’s Palette yarn I had spun. I knew that with a basic 3-ply, I would barely get 180 yards. And after reading The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, I knew to get a final yarn that I would like I needed to Navajo ply the yarn. So I started Navajo plying the yarn. I had no idea it would take me three long sessions of plying before I would have a finished yarn. I finished plying it on Sunday and immediately gave it a bath.
I was so afraid that I would accidentally felt the yarn or do something to mess it up, so I was extremely careful when I washed it. I’m not sure how well I set the twist since the water was medium warm and not hot because I was so freaky about putting my yarn in the water and I didn’t want to “shock” it into felting. It’s dry now and beautiful.


I have no idea what I’ll make with it, but I have about 210 yards. I’ll probably make some sort of scarf out of it. My fears are that the spots where the yarn isn’t plied together as tightly as the other spots there will be weak spots in the yarn, and that the little “knots” where the yarn was chained together will show.

Since Bryan and I both had Thursday and Friday off, we decided to hit the apartment hard and do some serious cleaning. We cleaned out the bedroom closet, which we thought would take a while, but it only took us two hours. It looks amazing, I don’t think that closet has looked this good ever. It’s always been a bit disorganized with stuff piled on the floor. Now only plastic bins are on the floor and they are nicely organized. I also packed away all of my winter clothes. It’s nearly June, so I figure it’s okay to finally pack winter clothes away, although Chicago weather can always surprise us.

With the nice weather, we managed to get several good long walks in this weekend. And a picnic on Monday. Friday was a memorable evening, we had a good soaking rain after a gorgeous day. We were sitting in the living room and heard some people outside talking very loudly. So we looked outside and saw a rainbow. Little did we know that we wouldn’t just see any rainbow. We saw part of a double rainbow.
After snapping a few photos, we went inside because it was still pouring rain. Several minutes later Bryan took the garbage out and told me to grab my camera because the full rainbow could be seen from the front of our building. I had to take a few photos just to document it. It was so amazing! Unfortunately, the photos don’t do it justice and it was so large that I had to splice two photos together to get a photo of the full rainbow.

Also on Friday, a new mini friend arrived. Meet our Mac Mini. It’s even smaller in person than I thought. Don’t let the smallness fool you, it’s an amazing little computer, faster than any computer I’ve worked with. Friday afternoon, we spent some time getting it up and running. Saturday, I spent part of the day trying to get my email set up. At one point, I thought I would give up and then it hit me, I was setting it up all wrong. I’ve moved over some of the files from the Mac iBook I currently have. Now to move files from the older Mac that hasn’t been used in nearly two years but has been sitting on the desk because I have files that I want to save, such as the first email I received from Bryan and some photos. We also have to transfer a lot of files from the PC also. Transferring the PC files will take quite a while because it’s been our main computer for two years and was Bryan’s computer for several years before we moved in together.

I didn’t get a lot of knitting done this weekend because I was either cleaning, playing on the computer, spinning or plying yarn. Last night, I knit several rows on Clapotis while watching an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD. It’s a great show to knit to. We bought the third season on DVD a few weeks ago and are watching an episode every few days. There are only ten episodes, so we need to pace ourselves.

I got the name of the girl who I will be a secret pal to this weekend for Secret Pal 5. This is going to be very fun. I haven’t participated in a knitting secret pal before, but after reading my pal’s blog, I already have a good sized list. I’m probably going to start a little project to send to her soon, but I can’t say more than that because I don’t want her to find out who I am until we are allowed to make an official reveal. :)

Summer is finally here! It’s going to be a very fun summer, I can just tell from how great this weekend was.

First of all, thank you all for your kind words about my blog’s new name. There was a part of me that was afraid you’d all think, what is she doing? What a stupid name. I feel much better after reading your comments.

Last night, M and I went to see Wicked at the beautiful Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago. It was a great musical but it didn’t hit me as being as good as it was until was over. Does that make any sense? I know I liked it when I started to have a few of the songs going through my head and I loved looking at the photos on the Wicked website over lunch. It didn’t help that I had a tall guy in front of me who kept moving his head back and forth and was a bit fidgety, although not as fidgety as the really tall guy two rows in front of me.

At lunch today, I went home for lunch and checked the email, ate lunch, then watched last night’s American Idol that I taped and spun a bit before heading back to work. It’s so relaxing and such a nice break to be able to go home for lunch. A little spinning time can make getting through an afternoon much easier, except when my mind wanders and thinks about how nice it would be to be home spinning. I did a bit of spinning while watching the finale of American Idol. I needed to spin the Corriedale instead of starting to ply the Sandy’s Palette yarn. I wasn’t surprised by who won (I don’t want to say anything here because I don’t want to ruin it for the west coast people). It was somewhat obvious who won because they had that person sing one of the singles for their first song. They did that last year and Diana said she knew that she hadn’t won when they told her what songs she would be singing. You’d think they would be a bit more careful with that.

During Alias, which was very suspenseful all the way through, I knitted on Clapotis. I’m one more set of dropped stitches closer to being finished. I have about six or seven pattern repeats to go, each repeat is 12 rows, before I start decreasing. Alias was very suspenseful, as I mentioned before, but I couldn’t handle the car crash at the end. There is something about car crashes in movies and shows that really shake me up. I know they are supposed to be shocking but I feel so shooken up after seeing them. They seem to be using car crashes more and more in films and tv shows. And I remember them. There was a horrible car crash in Adaptation. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, my favorite film, there is a car that falls out of the sky to show how much Joel’s (Jim Carrey) life is falling apart, but it makes me jump every time. There was a car crash in The Forgotten that bothered me too. And then Alias tonight. Is it a necessary effect that they need to add to films and shows. They could use the effect but does it have to be so darned creepy to the point that you feel like you were in the car too. I guess the reason they bother me so much is because of an accident I had in 1999 when I lost control of my car on the ice. The car flipped around did a 180, hit a car parked on the side of the road - back bumper to back bumper and then flipped me around 180 degrees again. It was one of those moments where everything happened really slow and I felt so blessed that I wasn’t hurt. So that’s why car crashes in films and shows bother me so much. I know they are meant to be shocking but if you’ve been in a bad accident, they are just extremely disturbing.

On to brighter things, I’m off work for the next two days. A five-day weekend! Tomorrow, I’ll be hanging out with Dawn. We’re going to The Fold to do a bit of fiber shopping and then have lunch together. I’m so looking forward to buying some fiber and getting something in a very yummy colors of fiber. I love the white Corriedale Cross that I’m spinning right now but I’ll run out of it soon, though, I’ve ordered another six ounces of it from Inspirations Yarn. This is the yarn that I started spinning on my spindle and then transferred to my wheel. I think the yarn when it’s plied will make beautiful warm socks. Maybe I’ll make these lovely cabled socks that were part of the Interweave Knits subscriber only page for this summer. They’re called “Broken Cable Rib Socks.”
I think these socks would be lovely in off-white.

Or I just saw these on the website too - “Diagonal Rib Socks.”

And interestingly enough, they are both designed by Ann Budd.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Yes. I try to avoid buying anything that’s too cheap. I mainly avoid them because I hate knitting with them.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I spin. I just bought a spinning wheel in mid-April and it’s become my new obsession. My knitting has taken a bit of a back seat to spinning lately. Lately, I’ve been looking for yummy fibers to spin with.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
Smoke and strong perfumes.

4. How long have you been knitting?
Nearly 10 years.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes. Amazon search under my email address erica[AT]erica-lee[DOT]org.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
Lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, orange, grapefruit

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
A bit, but I have to avoid sugar and any “unnatural sweeteners.” My husband and I use brown rice syrup and maple syrup for sweeteners.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Rubberstamping.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Alternative. Ugh, I hate that word.
Currently listening to: Ivy, Sam Phillips, Stars, Postal Service, Doves
Favorite bands: Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh, Metric, Stars, Patty Griffin

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand?
Green. I prefer the rich colors of fall - deep greens, burgundy, blues. Lately, since it’s spring, I’ve been loving pink, lavender and orange. I’m not fond of basic pale yellow, although, it’s lovely if mixed with green.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Married less than a year, with two cats.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
To be a librarian. I applied to school but didn’t get accepted.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
Rowan. I love the classic-ness (if that’s a word) of their yarns. I’m not a fan of their bigger yarns or crazy yarns of late.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Acrylic. Polyester. Eyelash yarns.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Socks. I have enough sock yarn to last me another six or seven pairs.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Don’t have one. I love making sweaters, socks, mittens and hats.

17. What are you knitting right now?
Clapotis for myself.
Socks for the husband.
Lace shawl for myself.
Hat for the husband.
Two sweaters for myself.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
I wouldn’t wear one. I am sort of ready for them to go away, too many people who are obsessed with them. I did see one the other that was beautiful, it was lacy.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Circular, I have a history with carpal tunnel.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Used to love bamboo, moving towards an addiction to Addis.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
Yes. I’m a recent convert to the two circs method.

22. How did you learn to knit?
I was taught by a lovely Brazilian woman in a class at a store in my college town.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
Hobo sweater - Three years and a smathering of days (2 May, 2002). I am slowly making some progress on it.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Curious George. Kitties. Sheep (of course, because now I’m a spinner).

25. What is your favorite holiday?
September 18, my wedding anniversary. It will be our first anniversary.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn. I’m trying to cut back on collecting anything as being recently married and sharing a small apartment.
Books.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
IK, VK, Knitters, Rowan

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I love the bag on the front.
Twisted Sisters
25 Bags to Knit
Elizabeth Zimmerman books, I own Knitting Around.
You can see what books I own in my knitting library.

Attention regular readers: I have decided to change my name, nope not because I’m getting married again, but because my blog needs a new name. It seems to get lost in the shuffle of knitting blogs and needs a more original name than e’s knitting blog. From now on e’s knitting blog will be known as leetle knits. Why leetle, you say, it’s not even a real word? Leetle is a combination of my maiden name and little. Being 4 feet 11 inches and always the shortest kid in the class, I figured leetle was an appropriate name. In my carding-making life, I’ve been using “leetle” for over a year, so it just seems fitting to use it for my knitting life too.

I’ll get a new button made soon.

And since I keep meaning to do this and keep forgetting. I thought I would add this to today’s news. Amie tagged me more than 10 days ago. I was so excited to be tagged for my first list like this and then I keep forgetting to post it. So here we go.

I have to choose five things from the list below and complete the sentence. Then I tag other people and they answer in their blogs.

If I could be a scientist.
If I could be a farmer
If I could be a psychologist
If I could be a librarian
If I could be an inn-keeper
If I could be a professor
If I could be a writer
If I could be a llama-rider
If I could be a bonnie pirate
If I could be an astronaut
If I could be a world famous blogger
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world
If I could be married to any current famous political figure

If I could be a librarian, I would be the happiest girl in the world. I would be doing my dream job.

If I could be a farmer, I would only grow the yummiest organic fruits and veggies. And I would get first pick of the strawberries, mmmm. And I would only feed my animals the best organic feed. Of course, there would have to be sheep and alpacas, so I could have lovely fiber to spin all the time. I would have to hire someone to clean the fiber for me, since I just want to spin, spin, spin. :)

If I could be an inn-keeper, I would want to get to know all of my guests. And I would offer to teach them to knit. It could be a knitting party every night. :)

If I could be a scientist, I would find out what causes all of the horrible diseases in the world and try to find out how we can treat these diseases naturally without using the nasty chemical-laden pharmaceuticals we use today.

If I could be a psychologist, I would want to study why so many people are driven by money and power, and not what should drive us - love, peace and what is best for our spirits.

Now who do I tag?? Erin, Elspeth, Megan and the husband, although, I doubt he’ll do it.

Do you all have days where you feel like you want to write something but you feel like you haven’t accomplished much or even enough to post anything? I don’t want to bore any of my readers today, so be forewarned. But being boring is always one of the dangers of keeping a blog.

I’m home sick today with girl pains and have been on the couch most of the morning. I started the morning eating breakfast with Bryan. Then I laid on the couch and tried to write some morning pages, but didn’t feel like writing. Instead, I knitted on the Clapotis but ran out of yarn and didn’t feel like hunting down the second ball of yarn. So I tried reading Nineteen Eighty-Four for Bryan’s book group but didn’t get very far, maybe one page. I just laid there for a while staring at the sky hoping that my cramps will get better soon. I’ve already taken Aleve and Colosynthis, a homeopathic remedy, that has helped a lot in the past. I guess I’m experiencing a classic case of the sick boredoms. I keep thinking, I should spin for a while, but even that doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t want to resort to staring at the tv, but I fear that’s what it will come to soon. I think I’ll do some yoga to relieve a bit of the feeling of being kicked in the back.

Sorry to subject you to that, but my mind is just a bit cloudy today, I didn’t sleep well at all. With the cloudiness comes the being bored thing too.

I’m experiencing some serious project boredom in the last day or so. I’m getting to the point where I feel like I’ve been knitting forever on Clapotis and all of the other projects that I have. It’s only been three weeks on Clapotis, but seems much longer. It’s growing quite nicely and when I held it up to myself, I realized that I’m almost two-thirds finished. I remember reading other people’s blogs about how Clapotis just seemed to go on forever and I always thought, it can’t take that long. Now I know. I love how it looks and I know I’ll love it when it’s done, heck, I might even make smaller ones for my mom and sister.

My Project Promise that I made about not starting anything new until I’ve finished either Hobo, the Barbara Shawl or the Crazy Green sweater is starting to haunt me, but I know it’s for my own good and I’m going to stick to it. I knitted about 8 rows of the Crazy Green sweater last night while we watched a few episodes from the third season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD that Bryan bought last night.

Maybe I should knit on Bryan’s green hat, I haven’t knit on it for quite a while. It’s a slip-stitch rib pattern that is knit and slip across the right side and then k1, p1 across the wrong side.

The other night, I remembered that Shannon, one of my college roommates, gave us a gift certificate to the Yarn Barn in Kansas (the store where I learned to knit) for a wedding gift. We’re going to use it to buy yarn for a project for Bryan. No, he won’t be knitting it himself, he’ll be wearing it. I’ve wanted to make him a vest for a while and in looking through all of the patterns that I have his favorite is the “Cider House Rules Vest” from Interweave Knits, Fall 2000.
Since I need to make a vest for the TKGA Master Knitting program, Level 2, I figured this would be a great way to make something for the program and make something nice for Bryan. I had him pick out the yarn from the catalog the other night, he chose Rowan’s Wool-Cotton in a beautiful deep teal. It will look stunning on him. I can’t start it until I finish one of my other big projects, though.

I think I return to my place on the couch and take care of myself for the rest of the day. Who knows I might actually accomplish something today.

3pm - I’m back and feeling a bit better. I have accomplished something today. I worked nearly one inch on Bryan’s hat, which is quite an accomplishment since it takes so long to do two rows. Two rows on that hat are equivalent to one row on any other hat because of the slipped stitches and the way that everything pulls together. I’ve also spun some yarn. I’m nearly finished spinning the fiber from Sandy’s Palette. Hopefully, I’ll get it plied this weekend. While I was knitting on Bryan’s hat, I finished listening to Light on Snow that I’ve been listening to in my car for the past week. What a great story. It was a touching story and I really loved the woman they had reading the book. She was so perfect for this book. It’s definitely one to check out, especially if you like Anita Schreve. I haven’t read or listened to The Pilot’s Wife but after listening to Light on Snow, I look forward it.

I don’t normally comment on magazines that I subscribe to, but I just have to mention the newest issue of Knitter’s. The sweater on the cover made me think, “Why did I renew my subscription?” There are always some sweaters that I like in Knitter’s, but this issue wasn’t my favorite. There were a few redeeming qualities to this issue, such as the Elsebeth Lavold vest, which is nice and simple but with a nice touch. The other nice vest is “Whispering Rose” by Katharine Hunt. I can’t say I’m that thrilled with the rest of the issue. Oh well, it is a summer issue but Knitter’s just doesn’t seem to measure up to Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting sometimes.

This past weekend was just a little too exciting for us, as far as kitties go.

Friday night, I finished spinning my first bobbin of the beautiful roving from Sandy’s Palette. I wound it on to the niddy noddy on Friday night and let it sit until Saturday evening, when I wound it into a ball.

Saturday morning, Bryan and I slept late and relaxed a bit. We went for a long walk, cleaned up the apartment and I made a birthday card for Bryan’s nephew’s birthday, whose party we would attend the party later that day. Then about 2:40, Bryan comes into the office to tell me we’ll leave the house for the birthday party in about five minutes. He walks out into the living room and yells, “Chloe just ate a shoelace.” I rushed out of the office and he was chasing Chloe. She had eaten about two inches of a shoelace that Bryan had just taken out of his shoes. I called the emergency vet to see if it was necessary for us to bring her in. They said that it would be best, so I told Bryan to get the cat carrier and to call his dad and tell him we’d be late to the party. So we rushed Chloe off to the emergency vet. We spent a little over an hour at the emergency vet while they induced vomiting. “My poor Kitty Klo,” was all I could think and thank goodness I had my knitting to keep me from worrying too much.

Three years ago, I went through this before with her when she ate five feet of thread that I had pulled out of some fabric while making curtains. That was an ordeal because she couldn’t keep anything down for two days, and I was expecting this to be just as bad. The shoelace didn’t come up, so they sent us home with orders to feed her bland food of chicken and rice. She and George didn’t seem to mind the canned chicken but they turned their noses up at the rice.

Sunday, I was worrying about Chloe all day. We didn’t leave the house for long that day and just hoped that the shoelace would pass soon. Monday morning, I called our regular vet to have Chloe checked, just in case, something needed to be done. I took the morning off and took her over to the vet. The vet checked her over and said everything sounded fine and all we could do was wait. Fortuately, the shoelace passed, we think, and Chloe’s doing fine. The only time she seemed to act like anything was wrong was on Saturday when she was a bit groggy from the medicine they gave her to induce vomiting. She walked like she was drunk that day, it was so sad to watch her like that. Now she’s fighting with George just like nothing ever happened.

Back to the birthday party. It was a small party at Bryan’s dad’s with Michael, two of Bryan’s brothers, Bryan’s dad and me. Michael opened presents and then we had ice cream and cake.

Michael & Uncle Bryan

After the party, we came home and watched Big Fish. It was such a great film, I highly recommend it. Very much a Tim Burton film with some very sweet moments.

Sunday, we were very lazy and it felt wonderful. We watched the special features on the Big Fish DVD and then watched Ebert & Roeper. Most of the afternoon and early evening, I worked on putting stuff up on eBay - a bridesmaid’s dress and bridal shoes. I had no idea putting a few items on eBay could take so long, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Now if there were just other things around our house that we could sell. We’ve been selling a bunch of cd’s on Amazon.com and have nearly paid for my wheel with our sales.

I managed to get about an hour of spinning time in while we watched The Simpsons on Sunday night and started the second bobbin of the Sandy’s Palette yarn. Since I took some time off Monday morning to take Chloe to the vet, I had a little bit of time to spin before taking Chloe to the vet. Monday night, I had my orientation to be a volunteer at the library. After the orientation, I came home and finished the second bobbin of yarn. I was thinking about Navajo plying the yarn but since I divided the roving up in three parts horizontally, there is a one piece that has almost no purple in it. From my plied samples, I’ve decided to do a basic three-ply yarn. I’ll have about 170 yards of yarn to work with. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. At the rate I’m going I’ll have it finished by the end of this weekend.

First bobbin (as ball) and second bobbin on the niddy noddy

Also Monday night, I thought I would try my hand at Navajo plying again, since my first attempt was horrible. I spun some yarn with the roving that I’m using for practice and when I was plying, I really paid attention and made sure that the yarn was balanced before I spun it onto the bobbing. My second attempt is obviously much better.

Somewhere in time I’ve almost managed to knit on my Clapotis. Here is my CIP (Clapotis-in-progress). It’s turning out quite beautifully. I just wish it went a bit faster at times. I think I’m about 1/2 finished.

And I can’t forget to show the neglected Corriedale yarn that the Sandy’s Palette roving interrupted. I will get back to it after I’m finished with the green roving. It’s spinning up beautifully, but I think I needed a break from the white.

And speaking of neglected things, I will hopefully post a photo of Bryan’s neglected sock soon. I’ve been knitting on it a little here and a little there during the various vet visits over the last week and I’ve actually made some progress.

…as sung to the tune of “Dancing Queen” by Abba.

“You can spin, you can dye, having the spin of your life
See that girl, spin that wool, she is the spinning queen”

Okay, that’s enough for now. It obviously doesn’t flow like the original did. I was more of a spinning fool last night. I got home after a visit to the vet with both cats, which was surprisingly quiet and calm. When Chloe realized that George was there too (he was in for a litter box problem that we don’t need to discuss further), they both were very quiet while waiting for the vet to come into the room. I was knitting on Bryan’s neglected sock while waiting. The vet said, “Well, in this case, misery loves company.” So in the kitties case, it was okay that they were at the vet since they were there together.

After we got home, I became the spinning fool. I was spinning on some lovely Corriedale in natural white. Then I thought, I want to spin something else for a while and it will be about 1/2 hour before Bryan gets home, so I popped in the Patty Z spinning tape because I wanted to see how to Navajo ply. I have tried reading it and just can’t figure out what to do with my hands just by reading it. So I managed to get the general hand motion of it but it wasn’t until I wound it on the niddy-noddy that I realized - I over spun the plied yarn. It’s so wound up on itself and looks like someone got a bit too crazy with it.

See, I told you it’s a bit of a mess.

After that fiasco, the yelling of the new hand dyed roving was overwhelming.
I just couldn’t ignore it any longer and had to play with it. It’s spinning up beautifully.
Now the question is do I 2-ply it or 3-ply it or do I get really good at Navajo ply, which I think I need a lot more practice on before I ply this yarn using that technique. I’m the same type of spinner that I am knitter - trial and error. I think I need a bit of help on the Navajo ply and how not to over twist it. Any suggestions?

Clapotis is coming along nicely. I have more than 6 columns of stitches dropped. It seems to be a bit slow going though. It goes really fast at the beginning then I got into the straight rows and I couldn’t make it go fast enough. I want to just sit and knit and about every 10 minutes get to a point where I’m ready to drop more stitches. It takes me about 10 minutes to knit three rows and with 12 rows between the dropped stitches, it obviously takes a lot longer than 10 minutes to get to a spot where I drop stitches.

Bryan’s neglected sock has gotten a lot of attention in the last two days. First at the vet yesterday. Today, I worked on it for about 45 minutes at lunch. I have about 5 inches of the first cuff finished.

Tonight was the last night of teaching for me for a while. More about that later.

I also joined Secret Pal 5. I’m so excited! It’s going to be so much fun! By the end of May, I will know who I’m a secret pal to.