knish & kvetch

What is this about? An alliterative law firm? A pair of yiddish chihuahuas? No, just a day in the life.....
With no school, me & the Guys headed to NYC Monday. A short viewing of the Columbus Day Parade, then downtown for the Tenement Museum and knishes. We love a parade. We love the tenement museum. We love a good knish. We hit the trifecta.

How to start a day like this? The same as you: deciding what to knit on the train. A cool 1.5 hours of jiggity jogging MetroNorth knitting time. Its at moments like this I wonder why I never knit socks. So small, so portable, so direct. So easy to lose in the laundry. Oh yeah, that's why.

The pair of sweaters underway are too large to haul all day. I returned to a troubling ebay yarn from last year. I sent it to sit in the corner until it - or I - had a better attitude. It was listed as a soft laceweight felted merino in a rich warm colorway. It is laceweight, that part is true. Soft? Only compared to, say, razor wire. Richly toned? Only compared to...um, dull gray? Ok, in the spirit of the season I'll be kind and call it muted earth tones. I'm skeptical of the merino pedigree,too. Its coarse, and grabs itself like a 4 year old who needs a potty, stat. I've started no less than 4 scarf patterns with this yarn, tearing each out as Not Quite Right.

Attempt # 5 is Morning Surf. It was good to have it to work on during the train ride. I like this stitch. Now I'm at the point I reached with the last four starts. Enough done to see that the pattern looks fine, maybe even good, but realizing its no pleasure to see it unfold further. This time I'm going all scientific on it. I'll swatch, soak & dry, to see if the miracle of blossoming will make this frog into a prince. Otherwise, frog it is.

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