Ribbit

I did it. I frogged my mystery project and started from scratch. But this time I decided to start from the opposite end (at this point fellow knitters will likely be able to guess just what this mystery project is!) It took some time, but I think it was worth it, as I finally seem to have mastered the art of short rows. I'm very happy with the way this project is going (this time), and I know that it will knit up very quickly now that I've settled on my method.

Since I've been spending so much time in the evening knitting for others, I decided to pull Clappy out of hibernation and take it to work with me to knit during my lunch. I don't think that my desk chair is really the ideal place to knit (the arms really restricted my elbow movement), but it was nice to work on a project for myself for once. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my fourth repeat on the straight rows; I can't believe how slowly the repeats are going, because I consider myself a pretty quick knitter. I suspect that the fiber I'm using has something to do with it. The mercerized cotton has a nice sheet to it, but it likes to grip my needles, so I wind up stopping every dozen stitches or so to force the next group down on my needle. If I knit this pattern again, I will definitely use a softer yarn that will slide down the needle better.

This next part of my post isn't knitting related, but I just had to put it in because it's too ridiculous not to share:

When I got home from work last night I decided to be all productive and take care of my household chores. First I scrubbed my bathroom. No problem. The Softscrub smelled kind of weird, but okay. Then I decided to do a couple loads of laundry, since it's piling up. Fast forward about an hour and a half, after I've cooked dinner and frogged and restarted my mystery project. I go to retrieve my first load of laundry from the dryer, and discover that (I think) someone has opened the door during the cycle and not restarted, so the laundry is still wet. Grrr, I think. I pop in another dollar and run it again. Forty-five minutes later: I return, and make the same discovery. I run it again, and then run back to my apartment to make a sign ("PLEASE DO NOT OPEN DOOR!") which I then tape to the door of the dryer. After this third cycle is complete, I realize that no one has touched the door, the dryer is just broken and not heating up. But I still have a load of darks in the washer, and I need to put them through at least once so they won't be sopping wet. Long story short, I was up late trying to hang or lay out all this wet laundry. I even used my hairdryer to try to dry some of the smaller items. Grumble. You can bet that the first thing I did this morning was call the management company and tell them to fix this problem pronto!