What's happening

-I made it to my first knit night of the year. I think it's my first since last October. My absence is mostly due to having nothing I was knitting, although being busy in general and some Thursday night film series have kept me away too. (The latter will probably have me skipping knit night the next couple weeks as well.)

-I'm going back and forth whether to run in the 4th of July 5K road race. I've been exercising, but I haven't been running. The question is whether almost 75 miles a week on a stationary recumbent bicycle translates to running endurance. (OK, let's face it, what I would be doing is called jogging.) Part of me is really keen on the idea of going out there Monday morning and letting it rip. My legs do feel stronger. Another part of me says that this is a way to get an injury or paying to find out that I'm not up to the challenge, which is what I sort of suspect. Then again, I've run in this race before with less overall preparation. Decisions, decisions.

-I noticed last night that the air conditioning seemed to be running an awfully long time. A check of the thermostat showed that it wasn't moving, and looking at the unit revealed ice around the pipe coming out of it and going into the wall. This again, eh? Even when it was recharged a month or so ago, it seemed like it took an unusually long time to complete the job. It did get cooler in my place, but I couldn't help but feel as though the unit was having to work harder than is typical. Hopefully this takes care of the issues for good.

Alternate

Seaman's Cap

Yarn: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian highland wool; worsted weight)
Colorways: 8555 (black) and 7824 (orange)
Needles: US 6 and 7 dpns
Stitches: 102

I wasn't necessarily set on going to this week's knit night until I carelessly dropped a couple stitches in a late decrease row Sunday evening. I know how to pick up dropped stitches but not when I've been knitting them together in previous rows. Now my attendance would be imperative. What was a paralyzing error in my hands became, in no time, another repaired project by the knit night's designated mistake fixer. (Surely there's a better title than that we can give her.) One unexpected bonus from attending tonight was the unseasonably mild weather, which everyone enjoyed on the patio of a Mexican restaurant.

If we were talking artworks, this hat would be called a companion piece to a hat I made my dad. It's supposed to recall the old NFL knit hats I remember from when I was a kid. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, but essentially it was something like this:

except there wasn't any writing. (Or so my memory says.) I'm also thinking the color scheme was like what I just finished: black brim, orange body. Unless I'm imagining it, I had one of those Bengals cuffed knit hats with a pom. I've recreated it, more or less.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The colors are a nice contrast in what's sure to be a good football weather hat...unless the Bengals are an embarrassment this upcoming fall and winter. But let's only think good thoughts about the franchise.

Return to knit night

Until this evening I hadn't been to knit night in a long time, possibly since early March. There wasn't any particular reason for my extended absence other than my knitting had slowed considerably. As in practically nonexistent. What should I make? I don't know. OK, nothing it is.

I returned to knit night after my months-long layoff and cast on for a dishcloth, the old reliable project. Before I knew it nearly three hours were gone and I had probably 75% of the dishcloth finished. I hadn't planned on being there that long, but the time passed in the blink of an eye.

I felt it in the shoulder some from knitting so extensively, but I trucked along and was surprised how much I got done. That's easier when spending more time listening than talking, which was perfectly fine. It was like slipping into that mysterious persona of the secret knitter again.

I browsed some dishcloth patterns earlier in the day to see if I might find something different to do. While tonight's project of choice was the same basketweave pattern I followed on my last FO, my search uncovered a new pattern I'm going to knit. Looks like I'm getting back in the swing of it.

Knitting in the new year

The lack of knitting I've done since Christmas is indicative of the ridiculously busy schedule I must keep for the last week of the concluding year and first week of the new one. Right about now, when I'm supposed to be refreshed from a break, I'm dragging from the seemingly nonstop motion and the wear of knowing that there's more that needs to be done.

The one blip in my non-knitting came on New Year's Day when some of the knit night-ers gathered at a regular attendee's home for a potluck dinner and knitting. Yes, I went, even if it's not something I normally would feel inclined to do. Call it turning over a new leaf. Call it a momentary lapse in introversion.

Anyway, I cast on for a new hat for me. I was careful to check that I wasn't twisting my stitches on the first round and then proceeded to knit for another nine rounds. Well, my old problem of turning a hat brim into a Moebius strip appeared again. I'm going to blame it on the Options cable, which likes to curl on me, and the table, whose bad mojo claimed other knitters' projects that night.

Or, to put this entry in ten words, my knitting is stalled until some time gets freed up. Maybe I can find a little this weekend.

Knot comes loose?

So I've been having some trouble frogging a long dormant sock project. I brought it along to knit night with the hope that someone might have insight into what in the world I did to make this thing seemingly indestructible. Seriously, this thing does not want to unravel.

Granted, I probably created more difficulty for myself when I brazenly decided to cut a random strand from the toe because I couldn't find the woven in end. Still, you'd think that this sock would dissolve fairly easily after that, even if it didn't mean losing a little yarn in the process. Nope.

Part of the problem appears to be that the yarn split in one or two places and has created a knot in the toe decrease that I can't rip past. My fellow knit nighters helped salvage it to where the sock will rip up to this point, so there are three potential ways to resolve the matter.

One, I can finish undoing the cast on row and unravel from there. It's feasible but slow. Through this process I am learning that I'm doing good enough with working the cast on end into the project that I shouldn't have anything inadvertently coming undone there.

Two, I can keep ripping around the foot and letting the unraveled yarn pool around this one problematic decrease section. In theory this will work, but it also creates the potential for many more tangles and a rat's nest of unraveled yarn around the crisis area.

Three, I can figure out how to undo the knot or knots in the place that's the source of all this consternation. This is likely the best solution, although as I've fiddled with it since coming home, it's going to require a lot of patience.

I'm calling off any further attempts for tonight, but I'm hoping to conquer this mess over the weekend.

Ravelversary

Today marks a year for me on Ravelry. It might seem weird to bother making mention of such an occasion. Do people on other social networking sites notice when they have used those services for a year? Of course, I don't--and I suspect you don't--think of Ravelry first and foremost as a social networking site but as a one-stop shop for all things knitting, so that may explain the difference.

My Ravelversary seems like a good time, though, to heap praise on a site that plays a significant role in developing who I am as a knitter. I am an organized person, but sometimes my organization is in theoretical mode rather than in application. Ravelry makes it very easy to keep track of my projects, which makes it easy to find when I blogged about an FO and need some of the information from those posts. Really, it serves one of the purposes that this blog was semi-intended for.

Ravelry has also made it exponentially easier to find patterns that might interest me and direct me to knitting information. Remember the days of using search engines to find patterns and the like? Does anyone still do that outside of Ravelry?

It's also connected me with other knitters. I don't quite remember how I found out about the Wednesday knit night at the local LYS, but I suspect it was through a Ravelry forum. Later on I found another knitting group I'm more comfortable with and which fits my schedule better. It too came to my attention through Ravelry.

I've been attending fairly regularly for a few months now and don't feel so much like the odd man out (although I am, literally, the only male) now. I imagine my mostly quiet presence still befuddles many, but I've been welcomed in. I may feel like an interloper from time to time, but that's coming from me, not them.

Ravelry has helped me set goals, whether through site activities like Ravelympics or that nagging need to complete something because of the progress bars. I might finish the blanket I started making for myself if I would only add it to my project page.

Finally, I get a nice feeling of accomplishment when seeing the little hearts underneath my projects. Shallow but true. I don't know what draws these (mostly) strangers to look and leave their seals of approval or why this hat has been showered with far more love than this hat. (I prefer the way the kettle-dyed yarn knitted up in the latter.) Whatever the case, I'm pleased to receive such positive feedback.

Jess and Casey have done a remarkable job of filling a niche. The response must have exceeded their expectations. Ravelry may still be in beta a year after I joined the club, yet in my mind it is the definitive knitting site. If you aren't part of it, what's the hold-up?

Hey, hey, what can I do

Temperatures stayed on the chilly side today, so for the first time this season I wore long sleeves. I'm going to have to remember how to knit with those. After three days away from the needles, I picked them back up and kept getting them snagged in my sleeves. It didn't help that I felt like I was knitting in slow motion while parked at knit night. The week was catching up with me, and I could feel myself fading earlier than usual. Plus, I needed to get home to watch the Vice-Presidential debate and test whether or not my head would explode. (And in a really nerdy way I wanted to see the venue because I've broadcast basketball from there.)

I showed off the first sock of the pair at the gathering and was particularly gratified when a non-knitter expressed amazement at what I'd done. (Using four dpns makes it look incredibly complicated.) To be sure, I appreciated the other knitters' compliments. Such words make me feel like I can pass for a knitter. The opinion of a non-knitter, though, reminded me of how mysterious this whole knitting thing can be to those who don't do it.

It was a little less than two years ago that I began to have knitting demystified. I wasn't sure if I could do it. Looking back, it seems like a silly attitude to have held, but that too reveals how far I've come. I wouldn't put my current skill level any farther than beginner--maybe advanced beginner if I'm feeling generous--but I've come quite a ways. Who'da thunk it?

()

The weather was near perfect for sitting outside during knit night at The Northstar Café. I enjoyed a Thai burrito and made good progress on my scarf.

Cranked up My Morning Jacket's Z on the way home, caught up in the reverberating riffs that seem tailor-made for a cool late summer night.

Tuned into Obama's convention speech and felt some hope restored. I'll be honest, the political season tends to get me down, especially with all the pettiness, bitterness, and flat-out nonsense. At least for one night that vanished.

And Radiohead made a live stream available of their last U.S. date on this leg of the tour.

Smooth sailing at 64 degrees on a late August evening. All is well.

Crumbs

Some days I'm a chatterbox (something that isn't always evident in person), some days I don't have much to say. This would be one of the latter.

I suppose the last several days have been "interesting", although they've also been mostly unpleasant. Today was uneventful. Thank God for that.

I picked up a new pair of needles so I could resume work on the hand towel. I debated whether to go to knit night, eventually choosing to attend since lately I'd had more than enough of my own company while suffering from the kidney stones. I got a nice bit done on the project even if I feel like it will be a neverending one.

And that's pretty much it. Here's to a relaxing weekend.

Oops

With all of Thursday's fireworks I didn't feel like going to knit night. To add insult to the day's injury, I missed...

...the Ravelry gang in attendance.

Blergh.

Umm, but on the plus side, I got some needed apartment cleaning done...