Crochet Story

See why I've taken to call this my cockpit? I feel as though I'm climbing n and out of a fighter jet cockpit whenever I have to get up.

In the forefront there is my netbook on a tray set on a box . Usually my left foot is off the edge of the bed planted on a box that is there so my leg doesn't hang because all kinds of nasty things happen to a leg when it hangs over the edge of something. My right leg then is usually on the other side of the netbook which, if I'm crocheting, usually has a video playing.

To my left as I sit here in my cockpit typing this sits the vinyl case mentioned in yesterday's post that now contains all the newer size 10 thread. It sits atop the printer on my desk which is where the netbook has to go when I'm ready to sleep. At which point the vinyl case full of thread goes under the desk aka TV tray.

Where you see the thread on the bed is approximately where my butt is planted.

But let's take a closer look at the thread displayed there:



These are all thread bought since late summer out of which I've made zero to two bookmarks. My camera had a low battery so I set this display up to get a single shot I could crop several times for the story(s) I had to tell.

In last night's post I said I was going to start crocheting something from one of the new threads as soon as I was posted. I didn't get posted until after 4am this morning though and almost decided to sleep even though that was two to three hours early for me of late. But I couldn't bear to wait to actually start something with one of the threads that came in the mail yesterday. So i chose the Lizbeth size 20 Bubble Gum and the first and easiest and quickest bookmark pattern--the shell stitch:


I had a frustrating time of it, making so many mistakes and having to take out so many stitch and several times whole rows, that I'm sure I stitched the equivalent of 20 rows to get the required 12.

I should have taken that as a sign of severe fatigue and quit.

But the whole time I worked that one I was mentally drooling over the idea of doing a bookmark with the interweave stitch that I learned for the baby afghan and the color combo I wanted to see it in first was black and whit. I'd gotten a black Cebelia size 20 in my previous Joanne.com order and had sent for the snow white Cebelia size 20 in this order especially so I could do two-color bookmarks.

So as I cut the thread on the Bubble Gum bookmark, I decided that I could manage to do three rows before quitting. That would allow me to see the white on the black and the black on the white.



So I pulled the two balls out of the small box where I keep all my sizes 20 and 30. But the white one still had its cellophane wrapper on and I tried to hold both balls in my left hand has I peeled it off with my right.

BIG MISTAKE

The black ball slipped and tumbled...



Into my water tumbler which sets under my elbow.

Soaked like a sponge in bathwater it was.

I spent the next hour fussing with it. First wringing it out inside a towel until I could get no more drops out. Then trying to find a way to set it over the heat vents without setting it on the floor where Bruiser or Merlin would think it was a toy. Finally sticking it inside one of Ed's dress socks in the toe and hanging the top end off a stack of boxes beside the vent in the kitchen.

There I left it as I headed to bed. And there it stayed until 8pm after Ed and I had eaten. When I first pulled it out of the sock I was encouraged to feel the dry of the outer layers but when I squeezed it I felt the coolness that signifies dampness and when I stuck my finger inside the hole I felt significant dampness in the inside layers.

So I put it back in the sock and tied a not in the sock just above the ball and put it in the dryer on high heat on the moisture cycle set at the top end of the dry side. This cycle is supposed to run until the moisture level reaches the percentage indicated by the setting and I'd set it at the driest setting available. I didn't get to find out if the thing would have come out entirely dry once the dryer stopped because my MIL turned it off as they head for bed which I'd told her to do since the machines are right outside their door and that thing sounded like a tennis ball bouncing on a bass drum.

I left it sit in there another hour until it had a chance to cool down but also because at the time I was busy making an interweave stitch bookmark with cardinal red and dusty rose. I had to make the first two rows twice because of mistakes in count and skipped stitches so I stopped in mid row three to take the pictures, prep them and get posted.

First I checked on the black thread though. And found its center still damp but significantly less so and the dry layers on the outside go deeper. I can't do anything more about it until morning. The heat is off, the dryer too noisy as well would be a hair dryer so I think I'm going to go ahead and work a blank and white interweave bookmark tonight after I finish this one:



And after that I need to get back to work on the afghan. If I don't get at least a row done before I sleep I will have skipped two day's work which adds up to eight or nine rows behind schedule. From now on until the afghan's done I will allow myself to start my crochet session with one bookmark using the newer threads but must then make my quota on the afghan before doing anymore on any other project.

Niece's labor was supposed to be induced today but we have not heard any word yet.