More secret knitting and my seventh FO

Friday I humored my parents and began the arduous process of digging through childhood belongings and schoolwork so that there was less stuff for them to move in a month. And I wonder why I have pack rat tendencies... I think I must have found every elementary school art project and notes and homework from junior high through college. I threw out a lot but kept the "creative" work: papers and David Letterman-esque Top Ten lists that I wrote to amuse friends. (To see what high school kids find funny from this side of that time...)

Everyone must have been worn out from the day because after the rest of the family watched my awards screener of Over the Hedge and four of us played euchre, most went to bed early. I took a nap during the movie, so I was more alert and ready to knit in secret.

As I did for my Thanksgiving secret knitting, I kept the skeins in my backpack, ready to be hidden at a moment's notice, but I didn't put the chair in front of the door. I resumed work on my brother's tan scarf and hit a really good groove. I forgot my tape measure, so I didn't know how much I had done. Aside from finishing a project, my favorite time in knitting a scarf is the point when there's enough that it needs to be folded. It seems more tangible then. I would be satisfied if I could knit that much of my brother's tan scarf while at my parents' place.

I took a break from the tan scarf and cast on twenty stitches of blue Patons Shetland Chunky yarn to my lime US 10s. (I bought more yarn last Wednesday, but I'll save my yarn purchasing experience for tomorrow's entry.) This scarf is not one of my original seven, but since I'll finish those before too long, I can now take on my secondary list. This is my first time knitting with the 10s. They will take some getting used to, but I know I'm up to the challenge. With just a few rows knitted I can tell that this one should look very nice.

I returned to knitting the tan scarf for another hour and was pleased with the progress I had made. Since everyone was asleep, I'd been able to knit without the nervousness of someone finding out.

It's a good thing I put everything away when I stopped for the night. At 2:30 a.m. I heard someone in my bedroom. I'm a fairly light sleeper, so whoever it was didn't have to make a lot of noise to rouse me. I was a little disoriented, and with my glasses off, I couldn't tell who it was. My brother, the one I'd switched rooms with, was in my bedroom. Apparently the downstairs bathroom was occupied, so he came to the one upstairs and then got confused where his room was. He may have been sleepwalking too because he didn't respond quickly when I asked what he was doing there.

I had been planning to return to Columbus on Saturday afternoon. I stuck to the plan when I got up and was greeted by my mom telling me that there was more stuff to go through in the basement. I did what she wanted, but I was irritated for that to be the first thing I heard. Don't get me wrong. I left on good terms, but my time with the family wasn't as restful as I would have liked.

At lunch we talked about Christmas plans. I mentioned that I was working on something but didn't clarify what it was. My mom isn't wise to my knitting, but her joke that I was knitting sweaters for everyone is closer to the truth than she realizes. I may be churning out FOs on a regular basis, but it would be humanly impossible for me to knit seven sweaters in two months.

I arrived at home early Saturday evening. One of the first things I did was pick up my knitting. A quick measurement showed that the scarf was about 40" long. Not bad for most of it being knitted in secret. I watched the Blue Jackets game and knitted during the intermissions. I measured again and determined that I might be able to finish the scarf that night. In other words, that's what I aimed to do.

Sure enough, I knitted up a storm and bound off on the other side of midnight. Initially I wasn't sure how the different shades would combine, but I'm extremely pleased with the final result.

During Thanksgiving I paid attention to the colors my family members wore. I think my brother will like this a lot, not that he'll say anything one way or the other.

I briefly knitted the blue scarf, but I was running out of steam. No wonder. I have seven FOs in six weeks as a knitter. With four weeks until Christmas, I'm hoping to add five or six to the total.

Next...can I avoid the Sunday knitting curse?