A dropped stitch

No sheep ‘til Rhinebeck 2011 (or how I became a fleece whore)

Yesterday, I was searching in my yarn closet for one lone skein of Debbie Bliss Alpalca silk to finish a pair of gloves.  As so often happens when I enter my yarn closet, a big pile of beautiful colorful yarn came crashing down on me.

“Not in the sock yarns, not mixed in with my sweaters, not in the baskets by my dresser, not in my fiber stash.” 

It took me 45 minutes to find the skein, and I found a lot of really nice yarn that I should be knitting with, while I was looking for it.  Does this scene sound familiar to you?

The very first thing I want to say here is that I LOOOOOOVVVEEE my stash. I don’t have stash guilt or feel the need to apologize to any of my loved ones about how much yarn/ fiber I have (the dogs don’t seem to care, and DH has his own hoarding issues).  I do, however, have a rather small apartment, and I am starting to realize that even if I stop buying yarn and fiber today, I still could not knit through what I have in this lifetime.

I also have a dirty little secret, I would much rather have storage room for this:

(I bought 3 1/2 fleeces, this was the smallest of the three, and I hope(!) the dirtiest)
than for this:

 (this was it what my friend Laura got- Hmm, as I look at the two pix back to back even I have to admit I may need some sort of yarn therarpy)

I love yarn, but I find the smell of dirty, smelly sheep intoxicating.  I spent yesterday washing up the dirty little Jacob and it made me insanely happy.  Today, I am working on my Romney.

This year at Rhinebeck I spent hours walking through the sheep stalls high as a kite and thrilled to spend time looking at various breeds and learning about them. 

 (this is what the Jacob looks like when a sheep is wearing it)

I think this addiction  desire  interest desire  (who am I kidding) NEED was fueled by finishing my owls sweater.

(SUPER CUTE!!! If I do say so myself. )

I started carding the sweater last winter, and worked on spinning and carding throughout this past year, but when the weather changed in September I decided to finish spinning the last few bobbins and once I started knitting this sweater it was like any other addiction I have encountered (weed, oreos, red wine, or reading Charlaine Harris), I couldn’t stop.  I finished the sweater in about a week and a half. 

As usual, when I am writing I digress.....

If you are reading this you probably want to see some more pictures of Rhinebeck.  Hell, if you are like me you have already scrolled down to the bottom.  However before you do, scroll down, please note: I would like to publicly state that my goal for the next 11 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days is to knit only from stash.

My DF, knotmydayjob has stated that she will also join me in this endeavor, minus two exceptions:

Cashmere that is 40% off and her AVFKW fiber club.  Will we be able to pull it off?  Would you like to join us in this challenge?

Thanks for be patient, and as promised, here are some pictures from Rhinebeck:

(This table was full, until me and the girsl hit it).

 

(Yah, that's right we wiped out the fleece sale!)

(this guy is my hero)

(Hmm, on the on hand I would love, love, love to get my hands on this guys fleece, because you know it's CLEAN.  On the other hand, maybe it's worth picking through some of the crap to work with a fleece that isn't in full Burqa)

 

(seriously, I think they laced the apple cider)

 

Monhegan Island Socks

(Monehegan Island off the coast of Maine) 

In the last several months my knitting voice has been very quiet. It hasn’t found a project to land on, and although I still knit daily I haven’t felt connected to my projects.

Several weeks ago, DH and I took a trip to Maine two weeks ago, it was the first trip we had taken together during the summer in 4 years.

 

(Cadillac Mountain)

The trip before that was our honeymoon in 2006, and it was a three day weekend in Savannah 2006.  Granted a lot of our non-vacation in the summer status has to do with the fact that summer up until this year is my busy season.  This is the first summer in 4 years, where I haven’t been managing a movie, and of course the other key factor is that for 2 out of the 4 years my husband and I were living in different states.

As most of you know, for 3 years I was a couch surfing traveler, entering and exiting airports every three months.  My laptop, my knitting and my ipod were my constant companions. I became very adept at knitting socks and shoving my life into two suitcases.  It was a huge relief when my husband, my two dogs, and I got our apartment in Brooklyn, and I could start knitting sweaters. The last two years our big vacation has been making our polymeric down south to visit family and friends.  I love our house in Macon and I love our family, but visiting family is not a vacation, and visiting my mom always leaves me more stressed out than walking through Time Square. Our life together has been one of renovation, hunkering down to pay the bills, and long drives to check in on family members. 

A lot of times our life the last few years, has felt like pushing a boulder up a mountain.

(Cadillac Mountain)

Our last trip had been even less than a vacation than usual because our car had been in and out of the shop the entire time we had been traveling, the sunshine state was cold and rainy, and my mom……….

Never-mind, back to MaineOur wedding anniversary this year found us both unemployed, broke but with good credit, and it desperate need of a quiet vacation.  Maine, my dear friends, is quiet.

(Point Lookout- Stockton Springs)

Maine is vacationland.

(it says so on the license plate). 

It’s beautiful in Maine.

(Narrow's Bridge in Searsport)

It’s romantic in Maine. 

There is lots and lots of lobster in Maine.

(Linconville)

There is also the added benefit that there are awesome yarn stores,

(Purple Fleece in Stockton Springs)

and heck some of the gift store even carry yarn in fiber. 

(Port Clyde)

What more could a girl want?

(Yep, there were even alpacas there, and I wanted him but DH draws the line at farm animals in the car).

 We had our shares of challenges the first few days.  My dear dog Bean is so old, and she can’t get around very well.  She was very timid the first day we were in the cottage, so we tried dragging her around with us, which was stressful for dog, man, and girl. 

 
Only Frankie seemed free of trauma.  Around 3 days into the trip, everyone settled in and a funny thing happened, my knitting self came back. 

(porch where we stayed in Belefast)

Maybe it was the sound of the waves, or the wind going through the branches, or the sudden stillness that we stumbled upon, but I finally felt my knitting rhythm.

(Camden)

 

I had packed a pair of socks for the trip and it turns out they were the perfect project. 

 

Here are a few of the reasons I like knitting socks:

 

-socks are quick to knit.

-the minute you start to get bored with them there is a heel to turn.

-they are comforting to knit, what’s more comforting than warm feet?

-socks don’t care what you weigh

-they are portable a.k.a. perfect for the hiking knitter

 

Here is the FO:

(Brooklyn, NY- sigh)

IntSweMoDo2010 Take 2

Okay, if you don’t spend hours upon hours online on Ravelry, you will be looking at the title of this blog post, and wondering what the heck  is “InSweMoDo 2010.  The quick version is that IntSweMoDo201 is a ravely group dedicated to completing twelve sweaters in 2010.  That's right twelve sweaters! I am a member of the group, it’s the middle of April, and I am ashamed to admit that not only did I just finish my first sweater of the year, I have yet to finish my 2009 taxes.   Okay, I always procrastinate on my taxes, so I understand why they aren’t done, but what the heck is going on with my knitting? To date, other than the Tea Leave Cardigan that I just finished, the only FO I have to show for this year is a pair of Fair Isle mittens, and when they were finished there was still snow on the ground. I think the two biggest things that have impeded my sweater progress this year, where the DH Sweater & Ravelympics.

Excuse # 1-The DH Sweater

Istarted the DH sweater over Christmas.  The yarn for the sweater is Wild Apple Hill Farm Heavy Worsted.  It’s a Shetland wool, and it’s very scratchy, and not fun to knit with.  As much as I didn’t dig the yarn, I was determined to make my husband a sweater.  I suffered through the body, the first sleeve, and started the second sleeve.  The sweater looked very big to me when I was working on it, but my gauge seemed okay.    Finally, sometime around Mid-January, I had to stop lying to myself, my husband and my fellow knitters.  The sweater was huge , and that it was stupid to keep working on a sweater that he would probably never wear. I gave the sweater a good verbal lashing and then put it in a time out in the closet.  During this time period, my friend Sara had been also struggling with what to do with the Wild Apple Hill Farm yarn.  Quite a few of us, had acquired the yarn at Rhinebeck because the colors are great and it was $5(!) a skein.   Like me, she hated how rough it was to work with, but she decided to make the Tilted Duster out of the yarn, and look at how fabulous it looks on her!
Oh wait, that's an out of focus picture of my horrible, itchy DH sweater!

Ah, much better, my friend Sarah smiling happily because she will not be beaten by bad yarn!

 

Excuse # 2-Ravelympics  

About a week before Ravelympics, I cast on the tea leaves cardigan.  As you know, I immediately fell in love with the project, but knew there was no way in hell I would be able to finish it in two weeks.  For the Olympics, I decided to dedicate myself to the citron, which is a mindless, ruched shawl.  During the Olympics I only allowed myself to work on the shawl.  From February 12^th to – February 28^th, I dedicated myself to the citron, and I would of finished it, if I had been using fingering weight and I followed the pattern.  However, I was using lace weight yarn, and I decided to add a few increase rows to the end of the pattern.  

Oh yes! Another blurry picture of a project, laying abandoned, in the pursuit of making my sweater deadline for the year.

On February 28^th, I put down the shawl, and once again picked up the tea leaves cardigan.  I didn't put the sweater down until I finished it last weekend.  To date it has been my favorite sweater to make.  The construction is simple and elegant.  The yarn was soft, and the color made me so happy! It took me a month and a half to complete, which is record time for me.

Yay!  Even with dirty hair and no make up, I am proud to be wearing this sweater.  

My second project for  IntSweMoDo will be the Betty’s Tee.  The pattern came out in the Spring Issue of 2010 Interweave, and it’s already got a nice little following on Ravelry.  Eunny has written about the pattern twice in Knitting Daily.  The construction is entrelac in the round.  Ever since, I finished the quant I have been pining to do more entrelac.  This project is great because it's aran weight, and the repeats are long. 

I started the top over the weekend, and have had to rip back twice.  So far the pattern is winning.  I can’t quite yet understand how it’s coming together, but I am determined to figure it out.  I have also been shamelessly plugging the pattern to my more experienced knitting friends, hoping to entice them, so that if I get stuck I have a place to go in the middle of the night with questions.

 Hah!

Anyway, it’s a gamble saying this will be sweater number two, but I am going to say it anyway. 

 

 

The Pomeranian Update

I am happy to report that my good friend Frankie Pom Pom made it thru his surgery this week with great aplomb.  There was a wee bit of crankiness when the morphine wore off around 2am last night, but given the fact that he had 7(!) teeth removed and the vet was cutting right near his manhood, I think a little displeasure is to be expected, don't you.

Currently he is at his usual spot on the bed near my feet. He's smiling a lot.  Hmm,  not sure if that is because he of all the meds in his system, or because he has so many teeth missing.  Finally! He resembles the the old man, that he has been behaving like since I met him 8 years ago.

Between the waiting time at the vet's office, and the worrying time out of the vet's office, I have almost completed both sleeves of my tea leave cardigan.  Now, I have gone back and am adding 3 inches to the body.  I am not quite feeling the same serenity that I was during my last blog post.  Seeing the vet bill yesterday managed to jack me up a little.  I mean, "Crap, to spend that much money and not have anything but a jar full of dog teeth to show for it. Jeez."

But overall, I think I am mellowing.   Or maybe,  we have been hit with so many extra expenses the last few months, I have finally shifted gears from anger & frustration to resolved stoicism.  "Yep, just call me, Pema."

All I can say my dear friends is "Thank God" I have lots and lots of lovely stash.  A girl can withstand a lot in this world, if she has a large supply of merino on hand. 

 

 

Healing Turquoise

On my last blog entry, I wrote about my struggle with food, and trying to come to terms with it. It’s been almost 2 months since that blog entry, and I figured I am long overdue to give ya’ll update. 

I have lost almost 20 pounds and I have stuck to a food plan. If anyone wants to know more about my food plan or what I am doing, feel free to email me.  The biggest change for me is that I eat 3 meals a day, and only 3 meals a day.  Physically, I feel a lot better and although I have always enjoyed working out, it’s a heck of a lot easier to move my body around minus the 20 pounds.

I also went back to work last month. Thank God.  As much as I like time off, the role of domestic goddess is starting to wear on me. 

We have also had a lot of trouble with our beloved Buick the last few months.  It’s insane the money we spent getting our car running again.  We could of bought another car with the money.   Seriously.  Gr-rr.

What a pain in the a--.

Anyway, our financial situation hasn't been great as of late, so the extra cash was much needed. 

The most recent emotional hurdle I have been dealing with is that my dear  little Frankie has been sick.  He has had blood in his urine since last Friday night.  I took him to the vet on Sunday, and he is on antibiotics.  So far the meds aren’t working but it’s only been two days.  His energy level has been fine and he is acting normal, so hopefully the meds will kick in soon.

I am not sure why but my response to my external angst the last two months has been to turn inwards.  It's made me a little bit more reclusive as of late, and I haven't really felt like writing, but as always I am knitting.

Recently cast on the tea leaves cardigan and I am happily knitting it with bobby blue malabrigo.

On the needles, I also have been slowly knitting the Alhambra ,which I am knitting in jojoland cashmere.

 
On the wheel, I also have been spinning up the December installment from the Fat Cat fiber club.  It’s a lovely BFL which is also in a similar blue-green colorway. 

It’s pretty rare that I have three projects going at the same time that are in the same colorway. I was curious as to why I have suddenly been so strongly drawn to blue-green shades as of late, and here is what I read on line today about turquoise.

In Healing Turquoise can help to calm hyperactive or hypersensitive people . Turquoise calms the mind and is cooling to the nervous system. It assists  immunity and is one of the colors for throat chakra and communication issues, treats disillusionment and apathy. For cleansing, breath issues,  physical detox , rebirthing ,  purification , sterilization , transition , pain killer,  and hearing . It is a powerful cleanser and can be used as an all purpose higher octave color for healing. It can be used to improve the circulation and healing effect of energy in general.

 “Interesting, what does it mean?”

Heck if I know, and strangely enough I don’t really care. I have always liked turquoise and lately knitting with it just feels right.  Recently, I moved yet again into a new place with my knitting.  Not only am I extremely happy working with the same damn color all the time, I have become a monogamous knitter. Since I started the tea leave cardigan, I have been faithful, and for once it’s not a forced monogamy.

The same thing has been going on with my spinning.  Both projects have kept me completely enamored.   When I haven’t felt like carrying the cardigan on the train, I will throw the Alhambra in my bag, and it’s been a great back up project to work on but more often than not, I have opted to carry a bigger bag.

I imagine when I finish the cardigan I will happily commit myself to finishing the Alhambra, but lately I have had no interest in jumping from project to project. There has been a simple serenity surrounding my knitting and spinning. I don’t feel the rush to finish anything, or the need to cast on something new.  Lately, I been enjoying the process, which is rare for me. 

 

She Blogs Knot.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, which I know a lot of you have, you know that there are times when my blog goes quiet. Usually when this happens it means I am mentally working through something, and it’s gotten too personal to blog about. 

As a blogger, I have often struggled with the concept of “Too much information.” 

Safe topics
-knitting
-spinning
-dogs


Not safe
-recovery
-relationships
-dyeing (hah, who'd thunk it!)
-food

Food, glorious food.

(Yummy, Oh wait, I am not suppose to like that!)

Food glorious, food.

(Aww, that's better!  That's what I am suppose to like:)

I have been thinking a lot about my relationship with food, since I got back from our trip.  I don’t blog a lot about my ‘food issues'.   Full disclosure here, this is because quite frankly, even in the privacy of my own brain, I don't like to think about it.

I don’t like to think about:

• what I weigh
• or don't weigh
• or what I am eating
• or what I am not eating
• or how I feel about what I am eating or not eating.
• or how much I am eating versus how much I am not eating

It’s a very ‘unsafe’ topic for me, because if you have known me for awhile, you know that my weight goes UP, and then it goes DOWN.  It goes UP & then it goes DOWN.  I eat healthy for 3 or 4 months, lose a lot of weight, and then a job starts; or the holidays come; or the wind blows.  Something happens,and since I no longer drown myself in red wine, I drown myself in oreo cookies.  I tend to ignore how badly I have been eating until my size 14 jeans get tight, and then it's like this giant alarm goes off in my head, and the big "WTF light goes on."

Like all addictions, it’s very easy to look at someone who is doing something destructive and say, “Stop doing that.”  

“Why do you drink so much?”
“Why do you smoke so much?”
“Why do you eat so much?”
“Why don’t you leave him?”

But for the addict, it’s not like that.  Most of the addicts I know, don’t know they have a problem until they know they have a problem.  Then this crazy internal battle goes on for quite a long time, and if we are luckt we will stumble upon a solution and start looking for help, and if we are unlucky we will struggle with it on our own for a little while longer.  Or a long while longer depending on how lucky or unlucky we are. 

As always, although I am internalizing a lot, and metally processing a lot, I am knitting. 

I finished my chevron scarf over the holidays, and it rocks.  I love how it turned out and I wear it all the time.

My other winter projects have not seen such great success.

My damson was a bit too small:

(but gosh, it looks cute on Kaylee)

I was working on a pair of cotton real fingerless gloves, and they were also too damn small.  The DH sweater I was working on is too damn big, so I am going to have to rip it back.  So my knitting body image and my physical body image, has felt quite off this winter. 

Thankfully, I have always felt that what I lack in skills, I make up for in spirit.  Every day I get a chance to start over.  And thankfully, I can and will rip back as needed.

Damn Chill

DH & I decided to brave the winter storm and pull out on Friday night.  We knew if we waited, we would get stuck in the city over the weekend.  We made it to DC Saturday morning at one am, and that was when the storm started to come down in full force.  We drove thru a lot of it, and finally pulled over around 3:30am in North Virginia.

We woke up to this:

A quick peak at 95 South. 

It looks like a logging road!

The majority of the drive I kept the  pullover  I am making for DH in my lap. The sweater acted more as a security blanket than anything else.  For the most part, I kept my eyes on the road, there were accidents everywhere, but I worked a few stitches here and there. 

I only screwed up the stitch count once, and that happened on Friday night.

I tried to work on the chevron scarf, but quickly gave it up.  It's the perfect travel project: it's a four row pattern repeat; small; and I have made one before so I don't have to think, but color changes keep it fresh, the yarn is merino so it's super soft, and lovely to work with.  But I do have to look at it, when I am working on it, so it's not great for snowstorm knitting. 

Do you recognize the yarn?  Thanks again, Ginny:) I love it! 

The sky opened up in South Carolina.  I am ashamed to admit it, but I was too tired to knit. 

FAT CAT KNITS AND THE MIXED BLESSING

Today, I finished navajo plying the first of two bobbins that I have spun up from the November installment of the fatcatknits mixed blessing fiber club. 

This is my first experience with a fiber club, and I am happy to report that Ginny's work is fabulous.  The fiber was dyed beautifully, and I love, love, love spinning merino. 

The idea behind the club is that there will be two colors in each shipment that are distinctively different, but coordinate. I received two braids of 5 ounce roving on November 12th.  One was light in shades, yellow, green, and turquoise, and the other was darker shades of purple, maroon, and blue.  

I divided the fiber into 14 equal parts, and spun it up alternating between the dark and the light. 

As a single the fiber looked pretty good, but when it came time to ply I was a little nervous.

"What if I was making a huge mistake navajo plying it?  If it looked like dog vomit, would Ginny kick me out of the club, and stop sending me pretty fiber?"

Well, nothing venture nothing gained.  I figured it it looked like crap, I would just drown my sorrow in a fleece or three.

 

As you can see my fears were unfounded.  Right after this picture was taken, the fiber got a bath and I will start testing swatching it tomorrow. 

FAT CAT KNITS AND THE MIXED BLESSING

Today, I finished navajo plying the first of two bobbins I had spun from the recent installment of the fatcatknits mixed blessing. 

This is my first experience with a fiber club, and I am happy to report that Ginny's work is fabulous.  The fiber was dyed beautifully. 

For the first installment, I received two braids of 5 ounce merino roving on November 12th.  One was light in shades, yellow, green, and torquiose, and the other was darker shades of purple, maroon, and blue.  

I divided the fiber into 14 equal parts, and spun it up alternating between the dark and the light. When it came time to ply, I was a little nervous.  

As a single the fiber looked pretty good, but "What if I was making a huge mistake navajo plying it?  If it looked like dog vomit, would Ginny kick me out of the club, and stop sending me pretty fiber?"

Well, like I so often do, I took the plunge.  And thankfully, my instincts on this one were right on. 

Respect the Damson

This post is going to be very brief, and in effort to simplify I am going to write about one thing, and only one thing and that is the DAMSON.  

 

(okay, I know it doesn't look like much but you gotta trust me on this. )

The damson is a fabulous little shawlette created by Ysolda. 

(775 in the works on Raverly, woops, 776-I haven't added mine yet).  If you aren't familiar with Ysolda, then you obviously aren't spending near enough time on Raverly.  She is everywhere.  On knit night, there are usually at least 3 people with a ysolda pattern in front of them.  The liesl that I just finished is one of her patterns.

Woops, digressing again and I promised I wouldn't. I am not even going to bother to turn the photo around because that would also be digressing.

Okay, the Damson. 

When I first saw the pattern I was thrilled because it was stylish, and it was reminiscent of Grandma's dishcloth.  I love Grandma's dishcloth, and when I first started knitting I made about 50 of them.  Garter stitch, yo's- what's not to love.  Whenever, I teach someone to knit, I start them with Grandma.  Well, when I started the Damson, I was dead certain I would burn through the pattern.  In my arrogance, I quickly scanned the pattern and cast on.  I also only worked on the pattern when I was in route to somewhere.  It became my subway, trip to the grocery store, sitting in a meeting pattern.

I would check the row count from time to time, and more often than not, I lost a stitch somewhere.WTF.

It didn't help that every other knitting project I touched last week, was also screwed up.  At the end of the day (at least for me), it's pretty simple, IF I have 4 projects on the needles, 3 projects on the wheel, 2 that I am carding, and one that I am dyeing, I have taken the art of multi tasking to a horrible extreme, and I need to CUT IT OUT.  My brain was overloading all over the place, and it wasn't even overloading about real life crap, it was overloading because of my knitting. 

So last weekend I stopped knitting everything but the Damson, and I still made a couple mistakes, but instead of mindless ripping back, I actually re-read and paid attention to the pattern.  Overall, the pattern is pretty well written, and from reading comments from other Ravelry users I realize I am not the only one who overestimated the simplicity of it.  There are a few other "smarty pants" knitters out there (thank God).

Thankfully, Ysolda does two things that I really like:

1. She give stitch counts for every row, so you always know where you are.

2. She notes, that the number of stitches between the markers in the garter stitch section on the right side row equals the number of the row.  What this means is if I am on row 46, there will be 46 stitches between my 2 markers. 

Okay, here is where the pattern is a little sloppy.  She doesn't tell you where you are on the row.  Are you at the beginning or at the end, and what about the YO's, aren't they stitches?

Here are my notes, and how I cleaned it up a bit:

1. Using row 54  as an example, prior to starting row 54 (pre-yo's) your stitch count will be the same between the two markers as the row you are just starting.   So when I finish row 53, and turn it over to work row 54, prior to working row 54, I will have 53 stitches between the two markers. Or you can complete the row, and then count, but if you do that exclude the YO's you just worked.

2. The other thing to note, is that both the right side and the left side are  symmetrical (at least mine are).  To make my life easy, once I hit row 36 (or thereabouts), I put a stitch marker after the first four stitches, counted out 50, and then placed another one.  This way  I could easily check my row count.  I knew that if I made a mistake it would most likely at the beginning or at the end of the row, and this way I can quickly count both sides to make sure they are still symmetrical.  I also now keep a calculator in my bag for quick adding.

Using row 53 this time as the example.

Row 53 has 215 stitches

first check: Are there  53 between the middle markers: yes

second check:  Pattern says row 53 has 215 stitches.  Okay, I know I have 53 in between so I subtract 53.  215-53= 162 -100 (that are already accounted for by my markers = 62 divided by the two (each side)= 31.  I quickly check that I have 31 on left side and 31 on right side, and it matches up. Yay!

Please note: Although, this math keeps working out for me, I would really like to do this pattern over again from start to finish.  Obviously, using the stitch markers to count works, but I wish I had done this technique from the very start.  If you see anything wrong with my math, please give a shout out. 

Since I have done these two quick checks, I haven't made any mistakes, and I have saved a LOT OF TIME.  Prior to this I was re-counting the row every so often.  STUPID (and it was making my eyes bleed).

One other quick note, is I am using locking stitch markers for the middle section pre YO, and Post YO, I move up as needed but I find these easier to use when dealing with YO's.  I lock the stitch and never have to worry about the stitch marker moving or getting stuck on the wrong side of the YO.

stitch marker near beginning of row

stitch marker near middle section, and locking stitch marker.  Okay, 50 is the number I am using now, but when I get up to row 65 (which incidentally, I was at two days ago!), I will switch the markers so that there are 100 in between.  I might even do it sooner, the idea is that I want to be able to count quickly and count often, and I don't want to count out 150 stitches every time I need to check my row count.

In a perfect world, I should be able to see my stitches, and most of the time I can, but this yarn is a bit of a horror. "black variegated yarn= bleeding eyes, and as you tell from the pictures lighting in my apartment stinks, especially at night.  I think there are intuitive knitters and there are clever knitters.  My knitting intuition tells me that this is an easy pattern, and why not knit black.  Hah, after tinking back 3 times the clever knitter kicked in, like she so often does, and she ripped me a new a--hole. 

"Use your tools, and stop being so lazy."  She also forbade me to cast anything else on for awhile.

Now, what the f--k, how did a picture of Frankie end up in this entry! This post is suppose to only be about the Damson- I give up.