There Are Few Things Sadder Than...

A blogger who doesn't get to blog about all the wonderful things that have been going on over the past couple of weeks/months.

A couple of weeks ago I went to watch my daughter in the Area Track and Field Meet.

She got FIRST!! So this week I'm going to go watch her at the Regional Track and Field Meet.

Last Friday night, the family and I attended a little event called Relay For Life. My son's school hosted the event for the first time. The kids organized the whole thing. They set up tents so that those who weren't walking all night would have a place to sleep.
I got a yellow T-shirt. I gave a little speech. I did a lap around the track.

We let the balloons we were carrying go in celebration of being a Survivor. My kids helped.

It really was a special night.

Over the past month or so. I've been participating in a KAL with some of my knitting friends. We chose to do a Linen Stitch Scarf. I've made this before and in the post in my head, you would see pictures of the first one I did. I was happy to do it again as I remember it being very much a 'Zen' kind of knit; not 'mindless' but 'mindful'. There are four of us participating and we each chose vastly different colourways---always a fun part of different people working on the same project; seeing how the different colours affect the outcome---here is a photo of my completed scarf. AKA Christmas Present #1.

This photo isn't fabulous in terms of colour representation, it's more black than brown, but look closely...
Cast On? Cast Off? Can you tell which is which? Pretty close match don't you think?

As some of us approached the end of the scarf, so began our discussion as to how to cast off this particular stitch. Some research had been done prior to even beginning the project for tips from others that had gone before us. Every time anybody started stressing about it, or any stitch that wasn't quite perfect, I was the first to lean in to the concerned knitter and clearly and firmly state, "It's a scarf." My intent was to remind them that it didn't have to be perfect; that a blind man would be glad to see it and that if it was something that couldn't be noticed as you wore it riding by on a horse, then it didn't matter.

Then it was my turn to cast off. First I decided I needed another row after the pattern said to stop to balance my colour progression from the cast on. The other's concurred. Then I tried casting off knitwise, purlwise, knit two together cast off, knit one - slip one - pass stitch over cast off and then repeated each of those a number of times. I dug out several of my knitting books. My friend sent me a link from Ravelry. Everything I tried did not give me the look that I wanted, because apparently, it did matter what the cast off looked like.

This really should not have come as any surprise since when doing this scarf the first time around, I chose to work two scarves for half the rows and do a three needle bind off to keep the edges identical. So finally, in complete desperation, I found a crochet hook to attempt a slip stitch cast off. As far as mirroring the long tail cast on edge it wasn't too bad, but something still wasn't right and so back to the beginning for one more try. I worked another linen stitch row using the same colour as previously used, went back to the beginning of that row, worked a slip stitch cast off and....TAA DAA!!! I DID IT!!! I am just tickled with the result and more tickled that my friend at one of my favourite LYS couldn't tell the difference either. HEEEE HEEEEE!!!

Speaking of LYS...

There are few things sadder than a knitter making a last minute decision to go to a yarn shop that is having an awesome sale (that her friends got to go to before she could!) only to find that it is closed for the day.

It all worked out though. It was open the next day.