better day
Today has been much better than yesterday. Despite the major disappointment of the realization that the Hobo sweater wasn’t going to make it, yesterday ended much better than it started.
Yesterday, after dealing with the potential loss of Hobo, I worked on the Barbara shawl. After some measuring and assessment of yarn, I realized I was finished with knitting the shawl. Finished may not be the right word, more like finished with the main section. Last night, I started knitting on the lace edge. It took me a bit to figure out exactly how to knit from the chart and attach it to the shawl, then I finally figured it out. The lace edge is knit and the last stitch of the edge and the shawl are knit together. It’s actually quite cool how it comes together. Bryan brought home Dodgeball from the library for us to watch last night. We both needed a good comedy to watch and this one was very cheesy and funny. I worked on the lace edging while watching Dodgeball and actually made some progress. 
Then this morning after breakfast, I worked one lace repeat. Chloe was helping me keep track of what row I was on the chart. A helpful kitty is always nice. 
Also today while I was watching Days of Our Lives, I decided to be brave that rip out the Hobo sweater. After doing a swatch last night on size 4 needles and getting a gauge of 28 stitches to 4 inches (10cm), which is the correct gauge, I knew what had to be done.
Yesterday, it was this beautiful sweater with a very bad gauge. 
So I got out the ball winder during Days and just wound and wound without paying attention. I had to do it this way so the grieving wouldn’t be too overwhelming, and I knew I couldn’t do it by hand, I would never have finished. 
By 1:30pm, halfway through Days, it looked like this. 
Thank you all for your support through this tramatic time with this sweater. Once I was able to have a good cry about it and worked a swatch with the correct gauge, I felt much better.
I need to recap Saturday for you. My new knitting friend, Ms. M, and I drove up to Chicago to see the Yarn Harlot at Arcadia Knitting. We had lunch at the always wonderful Chicago Diner and then headed over to Arcadia Knitting, which is in my old neighborhood. The neighborhood has changed a lot since I left two years ago. While we were browsing waiting for the Yarn Harlot to arrive, Kelly, a former student of mine tapped me on the shoulder. I introduced Kelly to Ms. M and Ms. M to Kelly. Then we sat and knitted and waited some more. When the Yarn Harlot finally arrived, the store was all a flutter and Franklin was taking photos for the store. 
The Yarn Harlot was absolutely hilarious sharing stories with us, including one about her daughter, a daughter’s playmate’s mother and one of the yarn closets. Doesn’t everyone have a yarn closet. She was even knitting one of her famous socks. Everything you’ve read about her is true and she’s even funnier in person. My cheeks hurt when we left the store. The Stitchin’ Seminarian gives a very good account of the Yarn Harlot’s visit. (I’m even in the background of her photo of Franklin.) After the Yarn Harlot spoke and we were lining up to get our books signed, I realized that Laurakeet had been sitting in front of us. I asked her if she had a blog and then was she possibly Laurakeet. (Phew, there’s a lot of name dropping in this post, sorry about that.)
I got the newest Yarn Harlot book signed and am not regretting not having a photo taking with her. Oh well, at least I was there and got to meet her. 
I also had to enhance the stash a bit. I needed to buy some Rowan KidSilk Haze to make a gift anyway and was very happy to see that now there is Kidsilk Spray that is variegated – very cool. Unfortunately, you can’t see the variations in color in the photo. 
And for myself, I couldn’t resist this Kid Merino from Crystal Palace Yarns. 
