Extreme Blocking Event!

"Extreme" in the sense of I have cramps all down my left leg, and if I had been a man, my chances of ever having children would have been in peril. Let me explain.

Like any ordinary person, I blocked good ol' Queen Silvia on my bed. That bed is a twin bed, so there was barely enough room for the shawl. Which would have been fine, if the bed was not also a loft bed, and six feet off the ground. There were contortions. It was epic. There was one part where I was trying to decide if it would be worse to fall off, or to sort of slip downwards (this is when I was straddling the thing on my knees) and impale myself. Ooog. Good think I'm flexible. Anyway, some photos.

First, an extreme close-up:



I would have liked to block it a little more aggressively, but I like the look of this stitch pattern much better when it's pulled vertically than horizontally, and I literally had no room to go longer.



Ooof. I can't believe it's finished! I hope I like the way its blocked self looks. No--I hope my mom likes the way it looks.

Oh, the finished dimensions, for anyone who cares, are about 20 1/2 by 70-ish. It might be longer, but I'd have to go find a longer tape measure, and I'm beat. I could really use a nap, but there's a shawl on my bed.

ha ha!

Grafting complete! GO ME.

Now all I need are some more pins, and I can block tomorrow morning! ("Morning" being the important word in that sentence, as the shawl has to dry in time for me to have my bed back tomorrow night.)

I'll be so bummed if I can't find enough pins around here. A pin-buying excursion will throw off my timetable. Not, as we've established, that there's any hurry. I'm just dying to see the finished product, because if I hate it or it's not big enough or whatever, don't think I'll hesitate to take stuff apart and re-do. You know I will.

Guess What:

Only six rows and some grafting left on Queen Silvia! Can you believe it?

Y'all, the birthday deadline is July 19, and this year I didn't even have to allow three extra days for mailing purposes. This means I will be done with this bad boy a full NINETEEN DAYS (ok, eighteen with blocking--crap, I think I need more pins, darn it) ahead of time.

Dang. What on earth will I do without Birthday Deadline Drama? Perhaps I should knit something for my brother for his 35th birthday. That's on the 28th. Of course, I don't think Charlottesville is a place where you need a whole lot of knitwear, so maybe I'll get him some nice . . . I don't know, karaoke tracks he doesn't have?

Anyway. Yay! I'll get more pins, and we will have Finished Product Pictures very soon.

And then I can finish my tank top.

oh, the interwebz.

One of the things I dig about the internet is that--usually--if you have a bit of a look around, someone has already asked your question, and people have already answered, so you don't have to sit around and wait.

What brings this up is that I was wondering how the heck long a rectangular shawl should be (to me 'stole' seems like fur should be involved) for a woman 5'3" inches tall who wears a 48" chest sweater. Would it be the same size as is comfortable for a woman 5'6" inches tall and approximately 36" around?

It looks like it might work, on the same principle as the time a costumer was hemming skirts for me and two much shorter women. She marked them all for my height, and said that their hips would take up the extra room and we'd all match. Dude. We totally did.

I'm thinking that the specified size (give or take a few inches) of the Queen Silvia shawl will work well for my mother. I'm also thinking that I really have no idea how long it's going to block out to be, given that I've changed needle sizes and borders. Oh, the adventure.

If I were making it for myself, I would just knit until the yarn is done, because I like long dramatic garments, and it's the sort of thing I'd wear on fancy occasions, probably with three-inch heels, thereby making myself a 5'9" person, and giving more room for things to dangle.

Anyway. It should be done within a week! Holy crap, wait, it could possibly be done THIS WEEKEND, because I think I'm on repeat 17. The pattern calls for 20 plus one partial, so I was thinking of doing 18 plus one partial, given my deeper borders.

Holy crap. What will I do if I'm not knitting right up to the wire?

quick update:

Number of repeats left to go on Queen Silvia: 4

Number of letters finished on Devil Scarf: All of them

Number of days left till my mother's birthday: lots

Number of days left to finish the Devil Scarf: 6

How much of a time-crunch we have with the Devil Scarf: none

Chances we will soon be able to knit something else: good

Next thing we have to finish: the straps for my linen tank top.


(I can't believe I haven't finished the linen tank top yet. At the VERY LATEST I intend to finish it by July 8, because the next day I am going to Spokane to visit my brother, and I don't have all that many nice summer tops right now. Of course, if I finish it by this weekend, then I can wear it to a family party and have everyone tell me how great I am. Only the Devil Scarf stands in my way.)

bitten in the rear.

Oh, I have so much time, I said. Queen Silvia is trotting along so quickly, I said. I can even cope with vacation time, I said.

Right, until my dad decides he wants a custom scarf to give to a friend of his at a retirement party. On June 30. ARGH. It's not so bad, really, except that I have to do Penn State colors, and I feel a bit unclean doing a Penn State scarf. My dad has only himself to blame for this: he raised me to think Penn State was the devil.

I shall have to find a witch doctor to perform some cleansing rites when I am finished.

(Queen Silvia is totally hanging in there, though. I counted, and I can get it done in less than two weeks if I have to. This should work nicely with the ol' schedule.)

Thank you, Lord Stanley!

Ok, this isn't really a post about the awesomeness of hockey, but damn, yesterday was a great day for hockey. Well done, Pens!

In other news--and why I'm actually posting--argh, my dad wants me to come visit him in DC next week, possibly with my mom, and that plus the probable Spokane trip will really cut into the ol' Queen Silvia time.

This may be more adrenaline than even I can handle.

Oh hey. Just because I can: