End of the idylls

Today is our last day in Vermont, and tomorrow we head back to the Mid-Atlantic. In the midst of canoeing, hiking, swimming, and berry-picking (and berry-eating!) I've actually managed to do a fair amount of knitting. That cabled scarf I mentioned a few days ago? Finished. It looks cool. Dare I say it looks super cool? Yes, I do believe I dare.

That afghan square I hadn't yet started when I wrote my last post? That one's finished, too. The pattern has a nice rippled look to it (the pattern is even called Ripple, I think), but even though the result it pleasing to the eye I did not love the execution. For one thing, it was done in an acrylic yarn (that's what everyone who's knitting one of the squares is using). I've tried really hard not to be a yarn snob, and even though I've been less than keen on acrylic in the past, I approached this project with a "Now let's see if I can discover my inner acrylic lover" attitude. But this project has convinced me to surrender and just admit to myself and the world that I absolutely cannot stand acrylic.

The other thing I didn't like about this square was the pattern itself. It's a ten-row repeat, with each row being different and not easily memorized (for me, at least). So that means I kept having to look at the pattern printout. I usually prefer to knit patterns that have good chunks of no-change space--say, "continue in st st until piece measures 5.5 inches from the cast-on edge" or whatever. Of course, in these cases I almost always forget to check the length until I've knit 7 or 8 inches and then have to rip out some rows, but at least this sort of pattern gives me a chance to get into the "knitting zone." With this afghan square, having to look at the pattern every few minutes made it very difficult for me to achieve that Zen-like state of knitting meditation ("knititation"?).

I still have the Not-Quite-Noro hat to finish during the trip home tomorrow. After than, I'm not sure what I'll do. I should probably finish some of the many UFOs I have around the house. But I'm awfully tempted to dive into the shawl project that my SP8 sent me. And of course there's all of that amazing yarn I bought at Green Mountain Spinnery and the local farmer's market up here. Decisions, decisions...