Coming Soon

I'll have Kevin take some pictures of me wearing the dress this weekend--the way I'm wearing it so far (with a camisole and leggings) seems too informal for work, and it's too dark in the evenings now for photoshoots!

I had the least coordinated morning today (I've been up for 4 hours, even though it's not yet 9:00). I knew I needed to stop for gas on the way to rowing, and there's a 24-hour gas station near my house, but in the opposite direction from the boathouse. So I left 15 minutes early, figuring I could go to the gas station, then pop into the post office to use the automated kiosk thingy to mail a package (once I've gone to the gas station, the post office is on the way). But the gas station was VERY closed (with a chain-link fence around the pumps and everything), and the kiosk kept freezing, or something, because it took a minute to respond when I tapped the screen. I'd left early, but not early enough to wait through all those minutes (and what a 21st century, well-off, healthy person in a rich country problem that is!). Anyway, it's not a good sign for the day when you've already failed at two errands before sunrise!

Then rowing was disorganized, and I felt like I rowed terribly. At least I made my breakfast successfully--yesterday when I tried to sprinkle some cloves on my oatmeal, I instead poured on several tablespoons and had to start over.

On the plus side, I'm 61% done with the endless wrap/shawl/cardi (two of those words actually are in the name, but which two?), and and I'm starting to think about messing with the bind off. As written, there are some garter ridges as you're finishing the body rectangle, then a three-needle bind off to turn a rectangle into a cardi. I tend to be a tight binder-offer, and I'm wondering whether I might be happier with the finished sweater if I grafted the edges instead of following the pattern (I certainly won't be happier at the time--I don't mind grafting, but a three needle bind off is definitely easier!). And while I'm messing with that, I might also continue the stitch pattern so it appears to flow uninterrupted across the grafted edges.

I think the designer chose a three-needle bind off because all that grafting would have turned an otherwise accessible advanced-beginner to intermediate pattern into a bigger challenge (plus, many knitters hate grafting). But what if there's another reason I'm missing now--but will discover as soon as I try on my carefully grafted sweater? I've been thinking about this a lot because do you know what's more annoying than grafting? Picking out grafting. In a mohair blend.