hours to go

By this time tomorrow we should be somewhere above the Rockies, flying into the morning. Yes, we will have to roll out of bed at 4AM, but that's only an hour earlier than usual, and our bodies still haven't completely adjusted to standard time, so it won't be that much of a strain. The house-sitter has her key and instructions, And today I am doing the last-minute errands. I vow that today I will fold and put away ALL the laundry!! I know I will have two days worth of laundry to do when I come home, and somehow the idea of laundry left-over from before we leave just frys my huevos!

Last night I finished a red scarf for the Red Scarf Project and started a second. The first, knit with two strands of bright red sport weight and one strand of maroon worsted on size elevens just flew off the needles. I cast on 25 and did k1, p1 rib forever. Very thick and cozy!

Then I started another red scarf. Same needles, some of the same yarn. This is an odds and bobs wonder with the stripes going the long way. You leave a six-inch tail, cast on 100 stitches, break off the yarn leaving a six inch tail. *Pick up some other yarn, leave a 6 inch tail, and knit back. Break off, leaving a six inch tail.* As you go along, knot the tails together in pairs. repeat between * - * until the scarf is wide enough. Bind off. (If you don't think it's long enough, switch to size 15 needles on your last row before bind off. Then, bind off 5, drop a stitch, bind off 5, drop a stitch, bind off till there are 12 stitches left, drop a stitch, bind off 5, drop a stitch, bind off 5. Ravel down the dropped stitches. This will leave an interesting stranded line about three times wider than a stitch all across the width of the scarf. On size elevens, four dropped stitches will lengthen the scarf by about 8 inches. It makes a decent design element on the ends.) Whoopty doo! You've finished a unique work of art that is also practical!

I read a chapter of my book to my writer's group yesterday, and they thought that the cowboy would want to conceal his history with the sporting ladies from the decent married woman with whom he was snowbound. I figured that, though he certainly wouldn't sully her ears with the details, he would probably take it as read that of course cowboys consorted with fancy women. This was 1871 in the Oregon goldfields. What do you think?