I find myself wondering, especially of late: Where does all the time go? For the past eight weekends in a row we have either had company or been someone else’s company. My week days have been spent doing all of the things I needed to get done before people came or we left. And with SUUSI coming up, that’s about three times as much stuff as usual. Blogging has been pretty far down on my To Do list. Last night, while sitting in the Charlotte airport WAY after I should have been home in bed*, I decided that before I did any of the other million things I need to do today I would blog. Because I miss it. And I’ve planned my next two projects.

I’ve been doing a lot of sewing lately to augment my summer wardrobe. I am having a terrible time finding shorts that have more than a 3″ inseam and less than 7″ one. I have solved my problem by making a bunch of skirts to wear as I would ordinarily wear shorts. Now I want to knit something to wear with them. The first of these Combination Craft projects involves a new magazine subscription.

The sweater, “Empire Dream,” can be found in Creative Knitting‘s** July 2005 issue. I was not that impressed with the first two issues, but this one has at least three projects that I like and a couple cute baby things that will make wonderful presents. The yarn for Empire is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in cotton ball which I ordered from Lorien.

My next project (and actually the first one I picked) involves this dress:

and Rowan Magazine #37. It is unlike me to buy a pattern book or magazine if there is only one pattern that I want to use – especially when the book is $20. When I finish, Rowan #37 in pristine condition will be available for sale or trade. Which sweater is the one I’m interested in? Elspeth, naturally. I’ve ordered the yarn, Rowan Calmer, on ebay. I’ve already googled around to see who else is working on Elspeth (truns out there are a bunch of people), to see if there is anything I need to know (turns out there’s a lot). Apparently there is Trouble with Shaping. I suspect that this is because it’s made in an all over lace pattern and the written instructions aren’t clear. There are no corrections posted on Rowan‘s website. They call their corrections “Pattern Revisions.” Clearly, Rowan doesn’t make mistakes.

What about my current project? I finished Honey’s back on the road trip. But, (and this is a pretty big but) after starting on the front, I realized that I had made a rather large mistake. I added an inch to the length before the shaping and then forgot to add that inch to the measurement before starting the armholes. I get to rip out half the the back and do it again. Joy. I may never be finished. Which I guess is OK since I don’t have anything to wear it with anyway.

*We flew up to Virginia for a planning meeting this weekend. For knitting I took a revised version of that tank top that came out too big. Getting up there went well with only an hour delay in Atlanta (when flying Delta out of Pensacola, one must first go to Atlanta) which is typical of Heartsfield Airport. They like to cram in every flight they possibly can. On the way home, however, the FAA issued a Ground Hold in Atlanta (when you cram in every flight you possible can, the sky fills up pretty quickly and there is no room for planes to take off until all of the other ones land), which meant that our flight from Roanoke was delayed. So delayed that we missed out connecting flight. The connecting flight that would get us home at 6 pm. After a great deal of rearranging, we got a US Airways flight to Charlotte (when flying out of Roanoke on US Airways, one must first go to Charlotte) and a subsequent connecting flight to Pensacola that left at 9:45. Which meant that even with the time change we got home at 11 pm. We were in first class from Charlotte to Atlanta, though. That was pretty cool.

**Now here’s something interesting: when I googled, I discovered that there are two magazines named Creative Knitting. This is the second one. It’s from Australia!
Here is another wierdness which makes me think that I am getting Magazines From the Future: the Creative Knitting Magazine that I have is clearly from July 2005. I have had it at least two weeks at this point. The Creative Knitting website says that the May issue is the current one and I can’t find anything about the July one at all. Also, I received the May one after the July one came in the mail. Do you think that I’ve developed a time maching and am bringing myself things that I wish I had made so that I can wear them in the future? I guess only time will tell.