The Zone to knit

I had lunch with my chair yoga class yesterday.  Among my fellow devotees was an author.  She and I discussed the need to devote a larger block of time to get into "the Zone" for doing your work. 

Well, that certainly happened for me today.  I started to cast on the required stitches for the back of my sweater.  I knit several rows of waste yarn, then changed to the garment yearn.  I knit a row.   Then I put the needles in hold for the second row.  That is when I realized that the tension dial was still set to 4 from my experimentation with various trims, and I needed it to be at 10.   Well, I hadn't really gotten very far yet, and I decided to just start over.

Next, I could not find my 1x1 needle pusher.   I looked everywhere.  I could not find it in the new tool roll I made (photos in an upcoming blog post), or under it.  It wasn't in any of the drawers of my rolling cart.  It wasn't on the floor, in the lid of the knitting machine, on my chair, in a magazine, or anywhere logical that I could see.  I decided to go have lunch. 

After lunch, I returned to my workroom and still did not see the tool.  So, determined, I used my original tools, my fingers, to move the needles into the 1x1 arrangement.  I knitted the first row of waste yarn.  What do you know?  There was my needle pusher tool, lying on the crossbar of the stand, directly underneath where the carriage had been.  Mystery solved.

But, what was wrong with the waste yarn? It was not lying nicely across the needles in working position.   Instead, it had sprung up in the air in several places.  I manually manipulated it back to where it should have been and hung the cast-on comb.  Or at least I tried.  I was having trouble getting all the hooks of the cast-on com to catch in the loops of the waste yarn.  Static?  A disturbance in the force?  I hadn't made the proper offering to the knitting gods before starting?  Three tries later, I decided to flip the cast-on comb over so that the hooks pointed out.  This was successful, in part because I finally realized I wasn't applying enough "drag" to the yarn that I was feeding in as waste yarn, not wanting to take the time to run it through the tension mast.  Another problem solved.  I finally knitted the required 12 rows to complete the garment side and knitted another 8 rows of waste yarn.

I wasn't really into the Zone yet.   I decided to come downstairs and see what was happening on social Media like Facebook and Ravelry.  I fully intended to look up my DropBox information to send to a friend to "carch" some files, but it completely slipped my mind until just now. 

In the meantime, my eye caught some movement outside the window, and I realized that there was a small turtle dragging his shell across my patio.  I ran and got my camera.  I wouldn't have really needed to run, because he hadn't moved far when I returned.  I snapped several pictures and posted them, and then hung around waiting for some action on his part, which turned out to be not forthcoming.

I got distracted looking at a pattern book or magazine  "Pat' s Patterns"  from the 1990s.  I had remembered a technique for enclosing edges that was demonstrated at a seminar, I think by Pat Frette, and I think I bought the book.  So while looking for it, I found this magazine from the other Pat.  It has a cute, easy to make Blouse from cotton yarn with a mock V-neck and cap sleeves formed by the excess fabric of the shoulder..  The sleeves are adjusted by a cord through eyelets at the top of the shoulder.  There are only two pieces, front and back, and no neckline or armhole finishing required.  So this should be an easy, quick garment to finish for wearing this summer.  I am pretty sure I have several cones of cotton yarn around here, although probably not the exact brand she used. I'm not fond of the fairaisle pattern across the bust, though, I'll need to adjust that.   Wonder if I can get gauge? 

So, I'm still not into the Zone, and my sweater back is still waiting for me to go finish it.   I don't know how Nancy Zieman accomplished so much in her series 10-20-30 minutes to sew.  It's not helping that I don't have a deadline.  Maybe tomorrow I need to figure out exactly how much time I have before Fiber Fest rolls around and I have to have my class curriculums completed!