Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A driving challenge


The challenge: knit an entire lace dish cloth during a 2.5 hour drive from Boston to Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

I chose a pattern that would look nice but wasn't too difficult. It's called a "bell ribbed pattern." The yarn was Peaches and Cream and the needles were bamboo, size 6.

I cast on and had knit the first four rows before we were even out of the tunnels. I had the first four rows of the lace pattern done before we hit Quincy. I had memorized the pattern by the time we crossedthe Rhode Island border. The only problem was trying to remember to psso in between rounds of "I spy" and retrieving fallen sippy cups. There were more than a few tinks but no major frogging.

We stopped briefly (as briefly as possible with five kids and just one potty) south of Providence for sodas and a stretch. I counted the rows and began to fret. Although I'd made a lot of progress, things seemed off pace.

As we passed into Connecticut, I realized I had to pee again. So on one hand, I really wanted to get to our destination and the bathroom there quickly but on the other hand, I wasn't as far along as I'd hoped, so I wanted more time. Knitterly torture!

I knitted as frantically and furiously as I possibly could, but I just couldn't do it. This is as far as I got:



I could have done it if I'd chosen a simpler pattern. I could have done it if not for the tinks.






At least I finished it while we visited so even though I couldn't hand it to our hosts when we arrived, I was able to turn it over before we left.
WELCOME TO SUMMER!






4 comments:

J said...

I made an afghan using a similar pattern and loved it. You're post has inspired me to look into using the pattern for something else. It might look nice in a scarf actually. :-D

monica said...

I made a scarf with that pattern. I love to just flip through the stitch library and pick one and insert it into a pattern, or make a cloth with it, just to try out a new stitch.

Unknown said...

Nothing like a car challenge! Beautiful dishcloth! I did most of my Irish Hiking Scarf in the car on a family trip north last summer and had the same feeling - don't stop - I just want to complete one more row!

Janice said...

The dishcloth is beautiful! What a happy summer yellow!! Isn't it funny how normally we can't wait for a car trip to be over.. but knitting changes all that when you want to just keep on knitting. We have a 15 hour trip to Colorado coming up at the end of the month and I can't wait for all that knitting time!!!