A Day of Much Knitting

I ended up driving in. Tried to cram in too much between waking at 5:00 and when I should have left at 6:30. Thankfully, one of my co-workers is on vacation, so I was able to park in her spot for free, woohoo!

Had a nice, productive morning at my desk. When I got back from lunch, our server was down. No intranet. No Outlook. No editing-of-documents. So I grabbed the sock and knitted away for two hours, between phone calls and incoming faxes, until the managing attorney and the office manager said, “Everybody go home.” [Outlook would come up for 15 seconds and be down for ten minutes, up for a minute and down for half an hour. Crazy-making, if one is not a knitter.]

What to do with all that serendipitous free time? I took the paperwork to Fourthborn at her job. It was so cool to walk in the door and see her at her desk, doing one of the many things she does so well. And to see Fiancé sitting way in the back at his own desk. We couldn’t persuade him to take off a shoe so I could get his shoe size or foot length. And somebody[ies] forgot to email me last night with that information. I also left the deposit slip with her, because LittleBit was picking them up after work.

Then I drove up to Barnes and Noble and got a four-cheese panini and a big glass of water. I flipped through the fall Interweave Knits, Knitters Magazine, and Vogue Knitting. Saw two or three things in each that I wouldn’t mind making, but nothing that said, “Whip out your debit card right now and take me home!”

Went to Knit Night and gave Jeri back all of that yummy WOTA. Julia had brought Harmony needles in the sizes I needed to try. She swatched on one, I swatched on the other. Then I scootched her stitches onto the end of my needle, and my stitches onto her now-empty needle, and we swatched again. And Joy handed me a different needle [Bryspun? Denise?] in a size 7, and I swatched with that.

I like the fabric best on the 5’s, but in stockinette it doesn’t quite give me the gauge I’m aiming for. And my gauge on the 6’s was a bit tighter; weird, but Jeri says that has happened to her in the past, where the gauge on the larger needle was more snug than the gauge on the smaller needle. She gave me the knitterly equivalent of The Wife Look and suggested [tactfully but firmly] that I swim the swatch before knitting the project.

I told her, “No, no, no.” because it makes her crazy, and is the proper response to The Wife Look if one is feeling contrary. Don’t tell her, but I will probably swim the swatch tonight.

I need to grab another ball of the black yarn. I have turned the heel on the first sock and will knit it to where I think the toe ought to begin and put it in time-out until I hear either, “Yes, I would love a pair of handknit socks. This is how long to make them.” or “No, thanks, I would rather have a boring, unimaginative gift card to the bookstore.” And then I will start the second sock. No idea, at this point, if they have fixed the technical difficulties at work. It would not do to be sitting at my desk, reading every word in the incoming faxes because I am bored to tears.

Much better to be sitting at my desk, smiling, because I know how to knit and am productively using my time. Maybe I ought to grab two balls of yarn, just in case.