cape quickie

In a grand anticlimax, I undid the swatch-on-cape and both rows of Yarn X. It's surprising how long that took, and a bit unsettling that the big resulting accomplishment was being back where I was two days ago. But I did get the first teal row done. (from the back, for a different perspective)


It's well worth redoing it--this new plan is so much classier. And luckily I decided to stop at the end of the row to check how the drape is. The drape is good, but while I was analyzing everything, I noticed that it seemed like I had used an awful lot of yarn. Sure enough, when I weighed what's left of the ball, I discovered that there will not be enough to do four rows of teal as planned, only three. That's too bad, but can I just say how totally ecstatic I am to have realized this now, not on the last row and end up re-re-frogging the darn Yarn X in the middle of the teal to move it again! Thank you, awesome little scale! This scale has revealed depths of nerdiness in me that were previously unknown: I am so irrationally excited to be able to weigh stuff in grams. 50 gram ball of yarn minus one row equals 34 grams? No way four rows are coming off that ball of yarn! At least I know.
But it's not all business around here. I took a detour to the library last night, and in the course of some "very serious research," I stumbled upon Exquisite Little Knits. This book has been around awhile (copyright 2004) but I've only been knitting since February. The way I learned to crochet was to go to the library, check out crochet books with pretty pictures, and fall asleep staring at them and studying the pattern directions. (There's just something about ch 567 sc 12 dc sc 3 tc...) I kind of got out of that habit, especially since the selection of crochet books at the main library here is grossly insufficient. But now I'm a knitter, so I can enjoy this gorgeous little gem of a book. Nearly all of the projects are beautiful and sophisticated, most fewer than three balls of yarn, and they're simple enough that I can understand them. A majority use high-class fibers such as cashmere, mohair, silk, or wool, but some designs use novelty yarns, and they're quite elegant--I think even the die-hard anti-novelty folks would have to admit it. I think I'm actually going to buy this one, and it's rare for me to say that about a book that's owned by my very own branch of the library.
Just for fun, I also got Keep Your Paycheck, Live Your Passion: How To Fulfill Your Dream Without Having To Quit Your Day Job (peppy but a bit unfocused) and Crochet Workshop. I am so disappointed that Amazon doesn't have a picture of the cover of Crochet Workshop--it's this white 70s guy with a huge afro, smoking a pipe and sitting in what looks like a wood shop class with a crochet swatch. I burst out laughing and disrupted the library when I saw it--it's too hilarious.