The Librarian Kate

Citi Field = so pretty.  Last night’s home opener = not so much (lost 6 -5 to the Padres). 

I hope this is not a sign of things to come.   Although a craptastic season would spare us Met fans the pain and humiliation of another late September collapse of playoff dreams.

At least they’re somewhat better than my Orioles, who I think have been rebuilding since I was in college.   In the late ’90s.  

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Happy National Library Week to all.  Go love your library.  Bill Gates did.

(I know the video is from last year. It’s still a good one.)

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There’s a few new projects this week on the knitting front. I finished the scarf for my college roommate’s son.  This is an adaptation of the Harry Potter Wizard Scarf, done in Vanna’s Choice that I had lying around from other projects.  Instead of doing seven sections of alternating colors, each section with 50 stitches each, I did five sections.  It still came out longer than I thought.  Oh well, kids grow.  And the recipient won’t be wearing it until next winter anyway, so he’ll be taller.

If and when I adapt this pattern again, I will make the actual sections smaller (30 stitches, perhaps, instead of 50).

The blanket I am making for my roommate’s other child (Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket in Lion Brand Homespun) is still coming along; I have not had much time on the weekends to work on it.  I’m about 1/4 of the way through, but the second half of the blanket will fly because it’s all decreases. 

I got bit the shaw bug again, and decided to attempt my first ever large lace shawl, the Diamond Lace Stole from the March 2009 issue of Creative Knitting Magazine.  The pattern called for any worsted weight yarn, I’m using Lion Brand Cotton Ease. 

It’s my first time knitting with cotton, and my inexperience with the fiber content of the yarn and the patten (Creative Knitting ranks this as “intermediate”) earned this shaw the nickname of the Shawl of DOOM(TM). There’s been much tinking back (backwards knitting) and the entire piece was completely frogged at least four times before getting the knack of the pattern.  Like the first shawl I did (the Shimmery Shawl), this is not mindless knitting for me.  I have to pay attention to what I am doing or a yarn over will be missed.

Despite the frustration and Lime and Violet-esque nickname, you can file this pattern under “will do this again.”  In fact, I used my first ever order from WEBS: America’s Yarn Store to order yarn for this pattern (Valley Yarn, Northampton in Colonial Blue).

Finally, I turned my first cable this week with a little bit of scrap yarn from the recently completed scarf.  There’s a great tutorial in the Fall 2006 issue of Knitscene magazine, which demystified the entire process.

This means many pretty new patterns and the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 2:  Cables are now in my future.