Drop Everything

Some time ago, I decided to make an afghan as a house-warming/Christmas gift for my brother-in-law and his wife, who have recently moved into their first house.  Being an architect, I thought she would appreciate the simple-yet-effective structure of the Big Bad Baby Blanket, and so after no little subterfuge and maneuvering, I found that an olive or a pistachio green would be most appreciated.  I was willing to splurge on Koigu, which is the yarn the blanket was designed for, but there really aren't that many of the quieter colorways, and surprisingly few greens, and so I began to look for alternatives.  Thanks to the very handy list at Yarnsub.com, I found that Blue Moon's Gaea fingering weight is highly recommended as an alternative, and because of the great yardage, I would need only two skeins instead of eight of the Koigu!  This last seemed so astonishing that I did the math four or five times, and came up with the same answer every time --

but they really are enormous, and so I ordered two skeins of Jade.  Unfortunately, it was back-ordered for some weeks, and arrived only yesterday evening.  It's a little more lime than jade, to my eye, but there it is, I am feeling optimistic.  So now I must drop everything and knit like a madwoman to have it ready by Christmas -- that's,

another miniature carpet, this one the "Greek-Style Georgian" from Sue Hawkins' book Dolls House DIY : Carpets and Rugs, the wool for which I ordered when I had to get another skein of red for the Memling Bergama, so as not to waste six dollars of shipping fees on one two-dollar skein of crewel wool, and what do you know, the blue is not nearly going to be enough, even though I am working at exactly the same gauge and with the same brand and quantity of wool listed in the book, gaah! (I should have bought a hank, not a skein, I knew it ...) -- and,

a wristwarmer in the Blue-faced Leicester I scored at Tuesday Morning some time ago, which is now in its fourth or fifth incarnation since I haven't been pleased enough with the gauge/hand/pattern/fit of what I've tried so far -- and,

His Bloody Project, of which I read a review in the LA Times book section on Sunday.  I tend to stay away from the more sordid, grim stories lately -- there is enough of that in real life -- but the review made it sound very intriguing, and lo and behold, the public library not only had it but it was actually on the shelf, so it only cost me the trouble of walking a block and a half.  I think I will not completely drop the book in favor of the blanket, of course, since I have to return the book fairly promptly, and I am in fact almost two-thirds along already, so it's moving at a terrible clip, though as the reader already knows that there is a multiple murder and that the young man who narrates much of the book is the one who committed it, it is not unlike watching a train heading for a washed-out bridge, just waiting for it all to come inevitably crashing down.

Yes, the Gaea skein is really 1024 m.  That's two and a half times around a sports track.  That's three circuits of a baseball diamond.  That's almost fifteen times the wingspan of a 747.  Not a single knot, either.  It's deliciously soft, and that's a very good thing, as it took me hours and hours to wind one skein -- or so it felt -- and by the time I was not even close to the end of winding, I could barely hold the ball, it was so big.  I was thinking as I wound of taking photos with various ordinary objects for scale, and I was even tempted to go to the market for a head of cabbage or iceberg lettuce, since it's just about the same size and color -- really! -- but here's just one to give you an idea!

Comments

[Toffeeapple]

I hope that you manage to get that finished for Christmas!

[Mary Lou Egan]

Good luck! I'm going to look for that book at my library. Which, as luck would have it, is a block and a half from my office.