Friday, January 20, 2006

Temporarily Delayed

Greetings from Cleveland! Here I sit, in a hastily booked hotel room, experiencing a second quiet night by myself. I should be at home right now, getting ready to enjoy a bottle of wine and some homemade pizza with my husband. That's my usual Friday night, and I like it very much. But the weather is not cooperating.

Today I was working in Cleveland on a project. As I was walking out of the office this afternoon, I received a call on my mobile phone. The charming robot voice informed me that my flight had been cancelled and that I was successfully re-booked on another flight...one that leaves early tomorrow morning. After a 30 minute consultation with a corporate travel agent getting apprised of the situation in Chicago airspace, it was confirmed that this was my best option. So, here I sit back in the hotel I so enjoyed last night. Hey, at least I have a comfy bed and I'm not trying to sleep in the airport, right?

I'm wondering if this has something to do with my pedicure. I'm convinced that I'm totally doomed when it comes to getting a pedicure. Recall that I was supposed to enjoy a pedicure last Monday, but it had been accidentally double-booked. That was actually my second attempt to schedule one within the past month. The first one couldn't happen due to scheduling conflicts, too. So, I booked a pedicure for 8 AM Saturday morning. My flight from Cleveland won't get me back into Chicago by 8 AM. I've had to reschedule yet again!

My Jaywalkers are likewise delayed. Here's where I was Wednesday night.

Jaywalker_in_progress_1Making great progress, eh? Yep, until I attempted to try it on. Now, I had heard that these socks could be snug, but they were wayyyy too snug. It was a testament to the resilience of the Socks that Rock yarn that I was able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it over my heel in the first place. So, I had to rip it out. *sniffle*

I had been working the sock on my US 1 (2.25 mm) double point needles, exactly as called for in the pattern. My pattern gauge was spot on. My stockinette stitch gauge was...well...a bit smaller than called for. So, I decided to rip back to the ribbing (which seemed just fine), then increase to the stitch count for the larger size and work on. I also decided to give the 2 circular technique a try with US 1 Addi Turbos. (Thanks to Rachael for demystifying this technique for me at Tuesday night's Stitch n' Bitch!)

While travel can be a pain in the *ss at times (like when you get stuck out of town on a Friday night when you should be at home snuggling with your husband and pets), it is great for working on knitting. All that sitting at the gate and on a plane gives one lots of time to knit. So, I was able to get several inches into attempt #2 on Jaywalker. Last night in my hotel room, I tried it on. Not snug at all! But...now it was too loose. So...I ripped it out again. Completely out.

I cast on again at the smaller size. I knit the ribbing on the 2.25 mm DPNs. Then, I switched to the Addi Turbos, which are actually 2.5 mm. (Yes, I was a bit surprised to see that clearly marked on the package...2.5 mm, not 2.25 mm.) I'm hoping that the little 1/4 of a mm difference will make the stitch gauge a bit looser. We'll see. So now, I'm just now getting going again on attempt #3. Let's hope the third time's a charm in this case.

Jaywalker_progress_2

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