Market Bag progress

Posted by marne on May 20, 2004 in other things, Uncategorized | 3 comments

So now my primary project is the throw blanket for my mom, in all it’s mind-numbingly boring glory. Here is the pattern: Cast on 5 stitches, row 1: knit; row 2: knit, m1 somewhere in the middle of the row; repeat row 2. Now comes the fun part. K3, YO, knit to end. And then you just keep doing that. So each row is all interesting at the beginning, when you have to remember that yarn over, and then just boring knitting. The rows keep getting longer and longer, and you notice that it’s a long time in between those fun yarn overs, and you have to push yourself to finish each row. I’m nearly finished with skein 2 out of 6. After skein 3 I get to add in a little twist because I have to start decreasing. That’s right, I’ll get to throw in a couple k2tog. Who-hoo! So it will be k2, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k to end. And then when I’m done, I’m not going to make any more of these darn throw blankets.

Boring knitting is okay sometimes, like when there’s something really good on TV, and you don’t want to concentrate to hard, but still want to accomplish something so your brain doesn’t turn completely mushy. But other times, a little challenge is good. That’s where I’m at now with my Farmer’s Market Bag. I don’t know why the straps are so hard for me, but I’ve just had a really hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of following the chart back and forth, rather than in the round, like I had been. See the bit of strap that I’ve done:

There’s maybe 6 inches there, and that is two evenings worth of knitting. I really want to finish this bag, I can’t wait to see what it looks like all felted. No more pictures until I do a before felting and after felting set.

Colonial House:
I wasn’t very articulate in what I was trying to say last time about Colonial House, I think. I was reading the TWOP message boards, and there were a lot of people saying nearly the same thing I was trying to say, only they said it much better. What I meant was I don’t get why someone would want to participate in something that will go against their principles. One of the women kept saying how she was an atheist, and sitting in the Sunday service, praying with the other colonist went against her principles and she didn’t want to do it even though it meant she would be punished. She had to know from the beginning that that would have been expected of everyone, so if it was such a problem she shouldn’t have agreed to be on the show in the first place. If you were a vegan, would you go on Survivor, knowing your only source of protein for 39 days would likely be only seafood? I wouldn’t think so (there was such a contestent on the Australia season, wasn’t there? And she had problems with it, if I recall correctly). Anyway, I thought they were supposed to re-create history, not re-write it according to 21st century standards. I think the lessons of history would have much more impact if they followed the laws more strictly on the show-the differences between then and now would be more obvious (not that a lot of things aren’t, it doesn’t look like fun and I applaud them for living and working in those conditions) and we would see how many freedoms we enjoy now thanks to those that have gone before. So that is my armchair quarterback speech, go watch the show, despite my irritation with colonists who try to insert their modern views into the 17th century, it’s a great show and fascinating to watch.