Don't Knit and Drive

OK, I wasn't knitting and driving. I was knitting and talking. I thought I could talk and do anything, so accomplished am I at talking. Apparently talking and counting doesn't work so well.

I was hanging out with the Ballet Bunch (Tracy, Joni, Jill and myself, we hang out and kibbutz while our daughters take ballet class), talking and knitting and sometimes looking through the glass to see Arabella doing her Arabesque or Zombie Walk. Tracy was bouncing Sabine, or Sabine was using Tracy as a trampoline, since she was really the one doing the bouncing and Tracy was really holding her from flying away. I have a great time with the Bunch, we talk loud and fast (well, Joni and I do, Jill and Tracy are a bit quieter and less frenetic conversationalists), we talk about all kinds of things. Yesterday we discussed plans for the summer classes, so we will all be together again (and the girls will all be together again, we use that as our excuse, since the girls have so much fun together). I've been knitting on the garnet alpaca Pimlico shrug, and it's finally big enough that it doesn't look like a weird little curl of dark red. I've gotten the stitch pattern pretty well memorized, so I was just zooming along. I knit about 4 rows, then tucked it away. Which was good, because a few minutes after Tracy handed Sabine back to me, Sabine vomited banana peach baby food everywhere. It was in my wristwatch, my shoes, my jeans, on the ballet bag, the floor, and on Sabine. At least it wasn't all over the shrug.

However, when I got home and tried to knit a few rows last night, I found I had miscounted while knitting at ballet, and the diamond pattern was more like a fat wriggle snake, all off center. I started to tink back, realized the mistake was about 4 rows back and decided to rip and then put the stitches back on the needle. Note to self: don't do that again. It probably took me as long to try to pick up the stitches as it would have to just unknit the mistakes one stitch at a time. And this time Sabine was trying to help out. Be aware that is irony: 7 month old babies are not helpful at knitting.

But I think I have it worked out, so I'll be back on track tonight.

Mugs:

I am trying a new technique for making a mold of the knitted swatch, which I hope will keep the swatch straight and make it possible to remove the swatch from the mold without breaking the mold. I will be casting a trial before the weekend, with the swatch for the cabled handle. If it works out I will make a new body mold. I am hoping to have the mugs in production for sale by mid-June.

Child update:

Arabella has been more circumspect since Friday's Sharpie incident. And Sabine, while feeling better, still has not cut a tooth. We can see what we believe to be a tooth, just under the gums, but I begin to think it is anything but a tooth. I remind myself she will have teeth before preschool, and not to worry.