Expotition to the West Pole
Here’s why I’ve been under a rock for a while.
1. I’be had a coad.
(Not even the worst kind of physically debilitating cold, but the brain-sucking kind that stuffs wads of sodden kleenex between your synapses every time you try to form a coherent thought.)
2. I’ve been stymied by a design problem.
It’s very possible that this is not a coincidence. Especially when you factor the cold meds into the equation.
Actually, the problem itself was a relatively simple one, and I think that that’s what made it so damn hard. Paradox ‘R’ Us, because the really convoluted-looking stuff, like The Nine Tailors and such, seems straightforward by comparison. I like it when I know what the issues are.
All this, especially coming in the wake of my previous post and the wise-apple comments thereon, has led me to some interesting ruminations on the nature of simplicity and complexity, which I was thinking about sharing with you now until I started writing it and realized that it still wasn’t making anything that could be called sense. (Love me some good cold meds.) So that will have to wait. And so will discussion of the solution to the design problem, which is still at the stealth stage.
In a related story, today I risked life and limb in an expedition to the good bead store. Or to be more accurate, The BoyTM did the risking-life-and-limb part, driving his fancy 4-wheel-drive vehicle-stability-assist-with-traction-control elephant through the slush storm, while I did the white-knuckled knitting-in-the-passenger-seat part. (There would have been a lot more risk and a lot less knitting if it had just been me and the slush and the little Honda Civic.) Luckily, the good bead store is near the good Indian groceries, so I was able to kill three birds with one unpleasantly damp and chilly stone: got my beads, got my rice, and replaced one bad DVD with an embarrassing number of good ones. I have long held that Beading, Basmati and Bollywood go very, very well together; so after dinner this evening I will finally get to see the rest of “Paheli,” while swatching the solution to the design problem with some of these.
About what I was knitting in the car, BTW - the Grey Thing is in its final skein. Change of plan: I decided not to use any of said skein for edging after all. I’m going to stay in pattern to the bitter end because I’m having jitters about overall length. Then instead of the self-edge I’ll do a quiet contrasting edging in black Zephyr - I’m thinking a modified Wave edging, for a perpendicular echo of the waviness of the Dayflower pattern. (Just at the short ends, or on the long sides as well? We shall see.)
And wouldn’t you know… now that I’m just a few reps from the end… I’ve finally learned the pattern.
Somebody’s Law, ain’t it.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I hate those kind of colds! My head feels like it weighs 800 lbs and will explode any second! Seems like it takes a good socks worth of knitting a pattern for it to sink in for me….usually right before the toe…
December 14th, 2007 at 8:25 am
I was told by an ancient and angry shop assitant that it was not possible to put beads on yarn with a crochet hook. That EVERYBODY ALWAYS but ALWAYS threaded them on in advance with a needle threader. I said “Or dental floss.” And she said “No, never dental floss. Only a needle threader!” And I said, “Ok, so pretend I want to buck the trend. Pretend I’m buying a tiny crochet hook to carry out my mad plan of putting the beads on individual stitches with my tiny crochet hook. Will this crochet hook fit through the hole in these beads? Can I open the bag of beads to check?”
She refused. I had to do it in secret. Just a random story of beads.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Oh, UGH! Happy Hanukah! Maybe Christmas will be better. Have you considered the Solstice?
I’ve been thinking about you, given all the nasties the weatherman has been reporting up in your neck of the wood - glad to know you’re alive, if not exactly “well”. I hope the “Three B’s” therapy has helped - for me, I just surrender and sleep through that kind of cold (not that I have any choice in the matter, you understand - I have a somewhat primitive, if quite effective, immune system.)
December 14th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
I’m so glad your coad is bedder. That’s a nice haul of beads — and are those bugle beads, center left? For a dangly fringy thing, perhaps? And what are you having with your basmati? A little aloo gobi? Some palak paneer? Vindaloo for a winter’s night?