Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It took about 72 hours.

I spent the weekend visiting my grandmothers in Regina. I left the kids and hubbie at home and trotted off to the 306 to spend some quality time with some special ladies (including my aunt). I brought my Monkey socks to work on as well as my Swallowtail shawl. My Monkeys were designated as the in-flight knitting project - they require little concentration and I have bamboo DPNs that pose no serious threat to the flight crew. The Swallowtail on the other hand is on Addi Lace Needles that could be used as weapons. Given the monetary investment in my Addi's, I elected to pack them in my luggage instead, rather than having them confiscated.

In between a multitude of visits and lunches and dinners and driving, I finished the Monkeys Sunday morning. This was a little bit of a problem because I no longer had a good in-flight project. But wait, I also packed some Lorna's Laces to start some Thelonius socks. I pulled out the yarn, I pulled out the bamboo DPNs and I pulled out the pattern (I'm a planner, if nothing else).

Except....I hadn't actually looked at the Thelonius pattern before packing it. It was in a nice folder and I'd just left it that way. I pulled out the instructions and Chart #1. Oh. This is going to be a problem. The chart is MASSIVE. Yes, massive in full caps. For copyright reasons I won't post a picture of it here, but trust me. It was 64 squares across by about a ba-jillion squares up. It required stitch counters, sticky notes and a graduate degree in math. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm up for the challenge. Just not up for it while 35 000 feet in the air, with bad lighting and the chance of turbulence screwing up my counts.

So I flew home knit-less. I read my book, I closed my eyes, I did nothing. It was good. I got home and the insanity of being away for a few days set it. I put the Thelonius thoughts away, and focused on home maintenance. J. asked me a couple times, "You don't have any socks on the needles???". I kept saying nope, not now, don't plan on casting anything on, blah blah blah.

Till this am. I couldn't do it anymore. I needed some socks on the needles. I can go through all the reasons why this is, but other knitters understand - portability, ease of transport, mindless (not including any Cat Bordhi patterns). So I cast some on this morning. I went 72 hours with no socks and that was all I could muster. I cast on some Go With the Flow Socks from Favorite Socks. Easy, pretty, no graduate math degree required.


And all is right in T's world again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a productive trip. I don't think I'll be attempting the Thelonius socks any time soon - my math skills are not so super (in-flight or not).

-andi

J. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J. said...

Well I know that I feel better.

catknip said...

Socks are always a great fall back.

T. said...

Seriously - you should have seen the chart - MASSIVE is the best word to describe it.