Oh what on Earth am I doing?

I still haven’t knitted on the neckband of my dad’s sweater vest, which I have to give him on Wednesday… And when I called him on Saturday he asked if I could whip him up a hat as well, out of the same yarn, which I haven’t started on either. Does anyone out there know how to knit and drive at the same time?

What have I been doing instead? Working on that shawl for my mom, of course. Why? Well, it doesn’t require me to pick up any stitches or use dpn’s, for starters. Not that I have anything against dpn’s, but I find them incredibly annoying for the first couple of rows. I even started my mom’s shawl on 2 circulars (since I happen to have a spare set of size 6 US circulars), but I can’t do that with the hat, since I don’t have enough circulars in the right size. Unless I want to knit the hat with size 6’s… Hmm… I suppose it would be warmer that way…

No, the vest is more important. Way more important, since I told him it was already finished (shh!). Ugh, I hate picking up stitches. Someone remind me not to pick patterns where I can’t do a provisional cast-on or something.

Here is the offending vest, which is a Petrol with ribbing added at the bottom per the recipient’s request, posing with the cat, who refuses to sit still long enough to be photographed unless I am actually trying to photograph something else. Cats, eh? 😉

Argh!

My mother, who, by the way, often borders on the impossible, is always asking when I’m going to knit her something. She does this every time I mention knitting, yet she won’t say what it is she wants me to knit for her. (Contrast this with my dad, who not only told me exactly what he wanted, but also picked out the yarn and bought it for me)

So I said, “Okay, how about a lace shawl?”

The reason I said this is because I wanted to knit one. She said a lace shawl would be acceptable. Provided it was knit in cotton/linen, and the color was tan or taupe.

…Taupe? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Whatever. KnitPicks CotLin in Linen it is. She didn’t give me any suggestions as to a pattern, either, so she’s getting a Pi Shawl, filled with whatever lace patterns I feel like knitting.

I used Judy’s Magic Cast-On for the center because I didn’t feel like wrestling against this slippery yarn to do a nice circular cast-on. I guess it looks okay. My mom most likely won’t notice the difference.

If she doesn’t wear it, well… I wash my hands of it. I think that’s the worst possible color for a shawl (correct me if I’m wrong), but it’s what she wanted, so even if she doesn’t wear it (and who could blame her) I expect some effing gratitude.

Nobody else in my life is this difficult to knit for…