Running in Circles

I got a note from one of my closest friends in the entire world, who told me her daughter, who happens to be my god-daughter, is expecting something for Christmas.

O Spite! O Hell!

Last year I cast on the Milanese Loop cowl for my beloved god-daughter, Siobhan. Somewhere in the pattern, I made a boo-boo. And I can't find it. I think on one row or another I forgot to K2T, because I have an extra stitch. And in a lace pattern, an extra stitch is a bad thing. A very bad thing. I had put the cowl aside for a bit, because I can fix it later. Well, now it's later. Much later. Much too late. I am not going to fix it and finish it and mail it to Vermont in time for the Big Day.

So my solution? Last night I cast on the New Bittersweet Cowl! Because nothing makes more sense than tinking back hundreds of stitches to find the one mistake in a cowl you've already knitted dozens of rows for. I won't have this done in time, by any stretch of the imagination, but I might have it done by New Year's. And that falls within the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. So I'm kind of on time. If not by American standards. I'm using some baby llama I picked up for another project and decided wasn't quite right for what I'd originally envisioned. I'm not at home right now, and don't have the yarn with me, and I don't remember the brand. But it's black, and it's soft, and it knits up like a dream. I am going at it on US 7 needles, though it would probably be better on US 6, but I don't have a circular needle that is long enough to make this cowl in US 6, so US 7 it is. It will look just fine.

True to my non-monogamous knitting self, I also have the Ombre Cowl on the needles, in mink! This is a gradient cowl, and I'm going with grey-white-black. I've already got about half an inch of fabric knitted up! It's not a hard project, but like everything else, takes time. I hope to have these two done by the end of the week. Then one more scarf to make next week, and I can devote the first two weeks of January to the sweater I'm making. When it comes to the knitting part, I have it all under control. It's the blocking that eludes me. I hope to bring some stuff to a friend's house tomorrow, where my blocking board lives, along with my blocking wires, and I can block the last three scarves.

I plan on drinking lots of spiked eggnog on Wednesday night. Just sayin'.