my own private maryland

Last week we made the long drive to Maryland. Too early for the big sheep & wool shindig, right on time to celebrate Passover with my family. A good non-leavened time was had by all. Lest you think we're deprived by dietary restrictions this week, dessert Saturday night:


The drive down was late night, giving me me hours to knit by the light of the passenger reading bulb. Normally I'd do a lot of the driving but when I muttered something like "I really need new glasses, I can't see a friggin' thing on this highway", it gave Dave the jolt he needed to keep awake at the wheel.
Much has been said of Clapotis and I'll add this - ideal car knitting. No measurements to be made, a repeat easy enough to memorize without looking at quease-inducing charts. Mesmerizing, really.
Around midnight, I started obsessing. I went from concerns of knitting a combat fatigue colored shawl to the fact that this yarn is skinny with no fuzz, and I'm knitting on size 5us needles. Maybe my fabric is too stiff? And my gauge is smaller than the pattern - will I have a small, tight, stiff, linen army scarf ? Will it take me forever to finish something I hate? I thought of that roadside commuter billboard 'If you were knitting worsted, you'd be finishing by now".

After about 100 miles of trying to do mental gauge-adjusting math, I just figured I'd do a few extra repeats of the increases.The next morning it looked like this.

And after the drive home, it looked like this

Worries be gone. The extra increases gave me dimension. The dropped stitches gave me drape and brought back the colors I liked in the first place. Switching to aluminum needles made this Safari linen so much easier to knit than the grabby plastic I started on. Placing it next to beach glass and rocks - well, thats just a cheap trick to think nature instead of military. I'll have to carry them with me whenever I wear it.