Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Decision time

All my holiday weekend knitting has paid off - I've finished Mystery Project #1!

Leaving me with Mystery Project #2 which is smaller, but not so portable. Which is to say that it would be if I was just knitting it from a pattern somebody else already worked out, but I'm not, so I can really only knit it at home.

Well, that's okay. I can be finished by the end of Friday even if I spend every day between now and then driving, which I won't, because I am definitely taking Thursday afternoon off after my test and I have the evenings free tonight and tomorrow night for knitting.

Which leaves me with one small problem:

Do I want to bring knitting along on Thursday morning? I'll have to wait for the examiner, you see, maybe about 20 minutes in my car after I've filled out all my forms and so on. Even 5 minutes is more than enough time for my intestines to transform themselves into meadows filled with happy butterflies fluttering hither and yon, so I will need knitting.

But I will also need to keep my mind clear and not tangled up in a pattern-making (or new pattern-reading) problem.

The obvious solution is socks, just not the socks I was planning to knit for myself, as they all have a pattern stitch I don't have time to make second nature before Thursday. I don't have time to do much more than cast on and go, really.

The decision:

Do these circumstances rule out the plain ribbed Man Socks? All I have to do for those is figure out how many stitches I want to cast on, and I already know the gauge I get, so I just have to guess at Man Sock Recipient's foot circumference (and then add on a bit for insurance, hence the commitment to ribbing.)

Or should I continue with the yoga sock festival I started when I was doing so much hospital visiting in March? The sock I'm on is nearly done, but I could certainly cast on for another and have a nice run of easy patterning for the entire waiting period.

H'mmmmmm. Well, one thing is certain - I'm not going to think about this while driving today. I need to focus!

4 comments:

heklica said...

I'm taking a pledge here and now never to have more than one project on my needles. This would be a nightmare for me! :) Good luck with your test!

Unknown said...

I can offer you some advice here. First, most definitely take the knitting. Both of my sons play baseball. I used to enjoy watching their games until they started pitching. Between the line drives up the middle and the emotions of watching your child with so much pressure on him, I started taking my knitting to the fields. It's been great. I don't get that "I'm gonna throw up" feeling anymore. Second, I would not take anything complicated. The nerves do prevent you from too much thinking. I've made some awful mistakes on projects when the stress is bad.

I'll be thinking of you during your test. I know you'll do well. Please let us know when it's over!

Mary Keenan said...

Misha - I read your comment and immediately imagined two different projects on the same set of needles! Thank goodness, I needed a laugh this morning ;^)

Angela, I think you're right about the patterning... the ribbed socks are the way to go, especially given how lovely the yarn for them feels under my hand. Hopefully it will only take me a few minutes to commit to a guesstimate on inches around a wide, man's foot!

heklica said...

Hahaha, that's my non-native English + your vivid imagination :) now, that would certainly be worse than this! I'll be sending some positive vibes your way during your driving test!