Still Here, Not There

OK, it's a long story, but we haven't gone to Lancaster yet. The big delay was that I finally got the receptacles on the circuit for my freezer changed from GFCIs to regular receptacles yesterday afternoon. The GFCI is a great invention, particularly for circuits that are around water, but it's crummy for freezers and refrigerators. If a GFCI trips and there's no one around to reset it, everything inside the freezer or fridge will spoil. In the summer heat we have here, it'll spoil quickly, so the once-a-week check our house sitter does won't be enough. I think I'd have to call in one of those companies that cleans up after undiscovered dead bodies to get the stink and mess out if it happened with the fridge.

Right now everything is in the van except the few things that can't stand the heat (it's cool today, only 87° with the dew point at 27° (relative humidity 12%). It's been about 10° warmer the last few days and will be again. Unfortunately, there's only a knot or two of wind, which doesn't help much in the garage.

The only knitting that isn't out there is my Argosy baby blanket. I've finished three pattern repeats on the decrease side, binding off six pattern squares (72 stitches). It's funny, but now it looks like a blanket, not a shawl. I don't notice any real change in row length, but I figure it'll show up after another few pattern repeats, when the rows get down below 240 stitches or so.

I've figured out three things about myself in the last few weeks. A lot of other knitters probably have the same traits, so I'm sure I'm not alone.

The first is that I hate knitting to a close deadline. I enjoyed knitting the feather and fan stole until I only had a week or two before I had to have it finished and blocked. I still enjoyed knitting it once I picked it up, but it was really hard to pick it up those last few days. I don't anticipate the same problem with the baby blanket because the deadline is in November and it's fun to knit.

The second is that I greatly prefer a project where I can see progress at a glance, particularly for a longer project. Argosy, in any of its forms, is like that. The pattern repeats are short enough and definite enough that there's instant gratification, even with sport-weight yarn. My fan and feather stole isn't. I think that's because the repeats aren't very distinctive.

And the third is that I hate to have my yarn trapped inside my circular needles. It just bugs me no end and I have to pass the ball through the needles to free the yarn.

I really don't have much to say today. I do some work around the house, knit a couple of rows, do some more, etc. Pretty much everything is packed and I'm just doing the stuff I do so that it's nicer returning. I do all the laundry and get everything folded, run a last load in the dishwasher, put out clean towels, change the bed, that sort of thing. It drives my husband crazy, watching me race around the house doing all this stuff just before we leave, so I'm getting it all done today.