Here I sit in the airport in Charlotte. There is a woman sitting in the next aisle who is knitting a beautiful purple sweater. Although I am beginning this post from here, it is likely that I will finish it at my destination - Asheville, NC. There won't be any pictures, though, since I forgot the cord. The purpose of this Asheville trip is to attend a two-day workshop, and I think that I will be able to knit through most of it.
This whole story began a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to knit a hat and scarf for my boss who has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer. So, how hard can it be to select yarn and a pattern for something so simple?
First, I searched Ravelry for yarns. My goal was something soft and warm. I figured that a nice merino would be right for this. After a lot of time spent searching online, I decided to save this purchase for my trip to the Virginia Fiber Festival in Montpelier. Barbara and I made the annual trek there (and not to get side-tracked, but I did not enjoy the festival as much as in prior years) on a beautiful October day last Saturday.
At the very end of my perusal of the vendor booths, I discovered the perfect yarn; Merino Classic Worsted by Knitting Notions. Inasmuch as I work for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, the marigold colorway was an easy choice; very "Marine gold." Even better; the yarn was on sale!
All that remained was to determine which patterns to knit. My first idea was something with cables. I thought about the Irish Hiking Scarf and the matching hat. Then I moved onto a matching cable hat and scarf from Cables Untangled.
Several other cabled hat patterns from Ravelry were considered before I decided against cables; maybe too much to think about in the workshop. During this time, I so happened to listen to Episode #61 of Stash and Burn; the one where they discuss all the free hat patterns on Ravelry. I went back to Ravelry, in case I had missed something. After two weeks of searching for a dang hat and scarf pattern, and after deciding on a simple Mistaken Rib pattern scarf, I returned to Ravelry for a matching hat. With a shake of the head and a couple of "craps," I broke down and paid $6.50 for the Wildflower pattern for a Mistaken Rib Hat and Scarf set. Phew!
Final preparations for the trip included winding the yarn on the swift and taking time for a gauge swatch. That was followed by organizing everything into a Zip-lock bag to be packed into my carry-on bag.
So, here I was this morning, sitting on the plane awaiting take-off, knitting away on the hat, when it hit me. It's too big. That gauge that worked yesterday isn't working today. Damn. Not only could I not knit on the hat, but the other project I packed wasn't in my carry-on. So was my pen, so I couldn't complete the crossword or Suduko puzzle. The Sky Mall catalog became my only entertainment; and entertainment it was!
Now I am settled nicely into the hotel room and just finished the first two inches of the hat. Needles? I discovered a lovely yarn store here, Yarn Paradise.
I was planning to go there anyway, but it took on an elevated importance and was the first stop after lunch. There was a wall of needles, with the largest assortment of Addi needles I have ever seen. It was meant to be; the needles AND the 2 skeins of Malabrigo lace in black that left with me.
