knit-o-matic

I have been working away on the secret project today, which involves tiny needles (smaller in diameter than toothpicks), tiny thread and tiny beads... and my last act of the day was to rip out all the progress I had made, because it wasn't coming out correctly. The deadline is looming. I really need to make serious headway tomorrow or my goose is cooked.

Time for some stockinette knitting to take the edge off. I started a sweater about a week ago, hopefully to wear to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC next week. (Because I don't have enough pressing deadlines.) I am going with my mom ten days from today, and I'm super excited... Time with my mother, a night at a NY hotel, two days of knitting lectures and classes and conferences, what bliss!

The sweater is black. Perfect for my attempt at NYC style, perfect match to my two "new" thrift store skirts. I bought this yarn over three years ago, for a completely different project for which it was utterly unsuited. I found this pattern two years ago and was sure I had enough yarn, to make the sleeves full-length even. Until I reached what I thought was the halfway point, and realized that I had one skein less than I thought I did.

Gulp.

Now I am racing against time and stash. Do I have enough yarn to make it? Or I am doomed? Of course it would make more sense, time-investment wise, to cut my losses and rip the darn thing out in favor of a pattern that I am sure will work, but what's the fun in that? I am living life on the edge here!

While knitting away tonight, Terzo and I watched our favorite Wallace & Gromit episode on Netflix, titled "A Close Shave." Very fitting.

If you have never seen Wallace & Gromit, look it up. Charming claymation, with clever British jokes (headline in paper: "Killer Sheep on Loose: Lord Baskerville Not Connected") and a knitting dog. This particular episode involved a wool shortage and thus yarn rationing (sign on shop wall: "2 balls per person"), with a great sheep washing scene and the "Knit-o-Matic" device, which sheared the sheep and produced a sweater in record time.

That's what I need! A Knit-o-Matic, so I know sooner rather than later just how much yarn I am short. Unfortunately, the Knit-o-Matic was not particularly good at producing a sweater that fit. I have to hope that it's not prophetic.