I admit it: I’m one of those knitters who just can’t keep my needles in my bag. I knit at work over my lunch break. I knit in the gym while I’m waiting for kickboxing to start. I knit on the sidewalk after the gym while I’m waiting for my ride, which makes me look like some strange purveyor of knitted goods. There I stand, in my long pink raincoat and my bright sweaty gym clothes, all “Hey, baby, need a scarf?” Not that I would give away most of the things that I knit to strangers outside the gym, though I do give away a lot of things. But I can’t say it’s not flattering when someone passes by and says, “You should make me one of those.” I am, after all, more than a little bit of a showoff, plus it keeps my busy hands from making mischief. 
Lately I’ve been working on a couple of scarves, both from Knitty: the Wavy Scarf in Tonalita’s Trendsetter (just look at that pretty colorway) and the reversible cable Elbac in some possibly discontinued stuff that Mom gave me, because who doesn’t love reversible cables? The pretty weather has me itching to knit summer things, but then as soon as I think about it, it gets cold again. Besides, that involves buying more yarn than I have the expendable income for right now, and all of the summer things I want to knit are so terribly fitted. I just want something to occupy my hands for now. They’ve both been adventures, though. I ran out of the Trendsetter for the Wavy Scarf, because I’d only bought one skein (40% off!) at my LYS, to try it out, and that was the last one that would coordinate at all. Fortunately, I went to New York City last week, and so I did a little research in advance on the many yarn shops there. The charming Knitty City came through for me.
The Elbac I started in a combination of yarns, some nice fat maroon wool that I bought and a hank of pale pink Brushed Suri. I was trying out some eights, but the fabric was just too stiff and busy, so I ditched the Suri and started over, then went up to tens and started over again. Still not drapy enough, so I switched to what I think is a Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. This meant I had to trade my lovely cranberry wool away to Mom, but at least the Elbac is now exactly the way I want it, and I’ve got ten and a half repeats done. Sometimes it takes five tries to get something right! This, I think, is the most important thing I have learned about knitting. There are times you just need to close your eyes and frog, rather than ending up spending hours on something you are miserable with. A good thing to consider before I start into my birthday skein of Tilli Tomas Rockstar, which has been sitting there glowing at me for weeks. Choirs of angels sing every time I take it out of the bag. It absolutely wouldn’t do to spoil that.
