Faina's Scarf and other things

Dallas is on blog hiatus right now which means I can sneak in and brag about her when she isn't looking.

I was poking around in the hall closet yesterday, dreaming of the moment when the leaves start changing color and I can drag out scarves and sweaters and fingerless gloves. You know: all the stuff that makes a knitter's life worth living.

I found the first multidirectional scarf I ever made: a sad narrow little excuse for a scarf with missing fringe and good intentions.

I found the trigger finger mittens (just typing "trigger finger" unnerves me!) I made by combining Elizabeth Zimmerman's Norwegian mitten pattern with web instructions on adding the index finger then copying a pair of gift mittens for the design. Who knew I could be that resourceful? Unfortunately they are big enough to fit hands five times the size of mine. I'm thinking about steeking them and turning them into fingerless mitts. If you have any suggestions (or really big hands) please share!

And then I found the fabulous baby camel scarf Dallas knitted for me a few Christmases ago. The pattern is Faina's Scarf and to say I absolutely adore it is to laughably understate my feelings. I'm one of those unfortunates who can't bear wool next to my skin. I turn into a red, itchy, miserable bundle of humanity. But baby camel is deliciously soft and gentle and apparently allergen-free. At least free of allergens that make me crazy. The pattern looks uncomfortably complex to me but the finished product is fabulous in every regard.

Right now I have the following on the needles:

• a second Irish Hiking Scarf
• 60% finished Vintage Velvet
• the ongoing story of the giant EZ Garter Stitch blanket
• Silk Garden Wavy
• (drum roll) my first Log Cabin!

What have you been up to?

Red Scarf, Blue Screen of Death

I thought I had it beat. My annual Springtime Computer Explosion didn't happen this year. I actually sailed through April and May without losing a single piece of electronic equipment to the mysterious powers that apparently flow through my fingers. The television lived, the radios, the MP3, the printers, the laptop. They not only lived, they thrived.

I thought it was over. The curse had been broken. Peace reigned in the House of Chaos.

Well, think again. This has been a week in hell. First I saw the Blue Screen of Death. Then the computer resurrected itself. Then as I tried a midnight back-up (which took eleven hours; don't ask) I received a message that said, "There is no hard drive."

Huh?

If there's no hard drive, how can you be leaving me a message on my computer screen? Don't I need a hard drive to send and/or receive that message?

It found its hard drive again later with a) patience and b) loud swearing.

And then I embarked on another round of frantic backing up which ended ten minutes ago in the happy message: "Close all programs. Restart computer. Run Setup. You are missing .dll extensions."

I. Am. Not. Happy.

At least not with computers. I am happy, however, with my knitting. I finished my red Irish Hiking Scarf for this year's Red Scarf project and I am delighted. What a perfectly designed, perfectly satisfying piece of knitting. No wonder it's so popular. All you have to do is knit one pattern repeat and you've got it down cold. And oh do I love cables. I could cable all day. I could cable in my sleep. I could cable when I should be writing. Cables are better than chocolate. And when the cabled scarf is going to the Red Scarf project, it just doesn't get any better.

I'm also working on a Vintage Velvet (Scarf Styles) in cream Touch Me. More cables! Big soft squishy yarn that will gently felt into the most gorgeous antique-looking soft swoony velvet imaginable.

This week knitting was the only thing that kept me from throwing myself into traffic on the Garden State.