We're blocking, we're blocking

Last night Boomer took me to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood for my birthday. If you ever get a chance to see them, you should go. They are a terrific time, even if you're not sitting in the first 20 rows, from which they pick all of the audience participants. (Apparently if you're female it is also necessary to be blonde.)

In any event, when we left I had finished all the knitting on the Olympic sweater except the shawl collar. I had really hoped to start blocking Thursday, and then I'd hoped to finish before we left yesterday, but I figured about half an hour to finish the knitting and another 15 minutes to block when we got home and I'd be in bed at a semi-respectable hour.

I forgot that the collar was seed stitch, and thus subject in its own small way to Harlot's Black Hole Theory of Knitting, which states that in any stitch where progress is not screamingly obvious the rows will mysteriously disappear as you knit them and it will take at least three times as long as it should to complete the required length. So (I will spare you the excruciating detail) by the time I finished the knitting and got that puppy washed and all possible excess water squeezed out of it and the blocking board (thanks, Kathleen!) set up and the pieces wired (thanks again, Kathleen!) and pinned, it was 2:30. I cannot remember the last time I was up until 2:30. Normally I start to fade at 9:45.

But we're blocking.


I am a little concerned that it won't dry in time, and I'm thinking of moving the board to a warmer place, such as Bermuda. But I am keeping in mind Margene's wisdom: it's the process, stupid. If I can't be Shizuka Arakawa I will be Eddie the Eagle.

And I will finish the sweater. I may not win a medal, but I will finish.