Nonbloggable thing two

I'm about at that point where the second nonbloggable project is beginning to be both cool and a slog at the very same time. It's big enough now that I can truly admire my work, and to have some nice drape while I'm knitting. At the same time, I'm not quite halfway through the repeats, and I certainly have the stitch pattern memorized, and I'm pretty much done. Ready to move on with my life, and get on with other things. Oh well, nearly halfway done is definitely progress!

I have this desire to knit sweaters. Things that are cute. Things that are warm and cuddly and appropriate for my new/old office, where business casual is the order of the day. The job change is brilliant thus far, and I'm ecstatic to be back downtown again. There are some trade-offs, of course- my commute is longer, and if I oversleep and miss the 8:04am bus I end up not getting a seat on the train, not being able to knit, and generally being stuffed like a sardine for 45 minutes. Oh! And the commute bumps up to at least a full hour, instead of 45 minutes or so. But I'm not complaining exactly, because on the mornings when I do get up in time and make my early bus I have so much blissful knitting time. SEVEN rows of lace, at the very least, just in the morning commute. For some reason the evening commute isn't as productive, knit-wise, since I can't always get a seat or such perfect conditions in my favor. But I'm adjusting. And of course the evening commute is longer than it used to be, but since I now get on metro ahead of Metro Center (the main transfer point), the cars are blissfully uncrowded for a stop or two, so again... I am able to sit down, take a load off, and knit knit knit my way home.

Not only is the job enjoyable, my commute is actually a joy. I wish it weren't basically two hours of my day, but as long as I'm able to knit and read on the way, I can't really complain too much! In the end, that's how I'm so close to halfway done with nonbloggable thing two. I hope to finish it by the first of September (which would mean a total of about 3 weeks from start to end). And then I can block thing 1 and thing 2 simultaneously.

I went to the Mannings on Saturday last for their Annual Knit-In. It was good to check out the place, though it was a very quiet day- I'm not sure if it was entirely worth four hours of driving. The drive was pleasant, however, and I am glad I went for the first time. I also used my time productively, to plan out nonbloggable thing three- it's not an actual pattern, but a combination of stitch patterns from Nancy Bush's Estonian Lace book. I was very proud of myself for figuring out the math, all on my own with just my cell phone calculator for the trickier analysis. I can't wait to get to work on it- if nothing else, because it will be a NEW stitch pattern to memorize, and a much longer pattern repeat at that. Did I mention that I can't wait to knit sweaters? After all this lace, I'm thinking I'll do the February Lady Sweater out of my MDSW Tess Yarn, and then I'm turning my life over to Kauni:



It calls to me.