...since meeting up with my friend, J -- she’s the one learning to knit by knitting the Irish Hiking Scarf! Work has kept me too busy lately. :( We finally got together today at the Hudson River Park and enjoyed knitting and catching up in the warm sunshine and green grass. She’s nearly done with the first ball of yarn and wanted to learn how to join in the second ball. I was so excited to tell her about the Russian Join that I used so successfully in the Faux Russian Stole, until I found out I had broken the second rule of knitting. I left home without my trusty little bag of tools! Oh the horror. No sewing needles, no crochet hook, nothing. I was able to demonstrate the idea of it, but that’s about it.
Since I had just finished knitting the FRS, I had planned on starting a new project. Just some mindless ribbed socks -- good for stop and go. My usual MO is two socks on two circulars, toe up. I usually use a crochet chain and then pick up stitches from there. Without a crochet hook, I was SOL. Fortunately, I had my instructions for doing a provisional cast-on. I’ve done it before, but only by following the instructions after every twist of the needle. It was even harder to manage while chatting with my friend. I kept losing my place and it just didn’t look right.
Oh the frustration. I’ve done this before, why won’t it work? Is it my recent ADD from my crazy work days? Over and over I tried it. After maybe 8 times, the lightbulb came on! We are simply creating a loop, once in front of the waste yarn, once behind, and repeated. I’m not usually this dense, so I’ll blame it on the distractions and socializing. :D
On a non-knitting note, I am thrilled to say that I’ll be seeing Radiohead next month! They are doing a small tour of North America, having just completed a tour of Europe. Relatively intimate venues + testing of new songs = a Radiohead experience that is not to be missed. According to this article, there are still a number of new songs yet to be performed! Oh, the anticipation. Congrats to those who got tickets. Good luck to those still looking!