The Great Reveal

I had a bizarre experience finding out that my mom had cancer. For one thing, biostatistics is all about cancer, that and heart disease, so almost all of the studies we’d looked at or been told about for the past four weeks had involved clinical trials of either a chemo treatment or a beta blocker. Makes me quite glad to be getting back to completing my math degree; I don’t think the risks associated are quite as dangerous.

“Rachel, I have to tell you something. I found a field.”
“Hmm, let’s have a picnic!”

“Rachel, I have a set.”
“Of dishes? That’s good.”

“Rachel, I found a ring.”
“Wow, that’s lucky! Is it pretty?”

“Rachel, there’s suddenly a river flowing through the backyard and we need to know the cumulative volume of water flowing through our property over a week.”
“…”
“We have equations.”

See? No problem. Terrible math jokes aside, it was pretty intense coming home two weeks later, because my mom had waited for a few weeks before telling my brother and me. This meant that she had already had surgery before I got home, and was in the midst of a flurry of doctor’s appointments before her first chemo treatment. That first week was pretty much all cancer, all the time.

Well, that’s not exactly true. There’s been quite a lot of knitting.

Yes, I know there’s a mistake in three quarters of a row of the first repeat. The cables are what I like to describe as a non-event. I think there may be a row of cables crossed in the wrong direction as well, but I couldn’t quite figure it out when I looked earlier. The real issue with the hat is that it isn’t quite a hat yet.

More of a bowl cozy. I realized somewhere around the beginning of the fourth repeat that I was running out of yarn. You know that point where the center pull ball is no longer a solid object and starts collapsing in on itself? Very scary for that to happen when you aren’t even close to starting the decreases. Especially if you are on a road trip taking your brother to visit colleges and you have no other suitable projects for car knitting. I knit tighter and tighter as the rows went by, but I couldn’t make up for the incredible looseness of those first repeats. Fortunately for all parties involved, there was another ball of Calmer left in Khaki from the same dyelot. In fact, there was only one, so it’s lucky that I got to it first.

(By the way, if anyone is looking to buy Rowan yarns, Richesse Online is having a sale to help clear out there warehouse for a move. Now that I have stocked up for several projects I can let you in on the secret.)

Besides the whole running out of yarn issue, I love this pattern. It’s interesting, each row is easy to remember (although I did clearly make a mistake, so just be careful when you pick it up again after putting it down), it changes frequently, and it keeps you on your toes. Grumperina’s excellent tutorial on ditching the cable needle has been invaluable (I thought that word was right and I checked); I don’t think I would have gotten half as far in twice as much time if I hadn’t finally taught myself the technique. For anyone starting the pattern I would suggest using a sticky note to underline the working row, and crossing out the row numbers as you complete them.

In sum, I’m very glad to have started this project. That yarn delivery had better hurry up, though, because hair is on its way out and the wig is on its way in.