Season changes

Ugh. The change in seasons is totally kicking my backside. The lack of light in the mornings, particularly. This is what made working for myself so awesome -- I got up with the sun, whatever hour that happened to be. And it was wonderful. Now I'm driving to work in what feels like the middle of the night, and it's taking me about three hours every morning to feel like a human again.

Not cool. Particularly when my phone starts ringing an hour in.

So in between being exhausted and cranky as all get out, I have been doing some knitting:

It's grown. Not by a ton, but some.

I've also, in the past week, started working on this:

This is my Hue Shift Blanket. Hey, it's still on sale! Trust me, it's a good deal. This is what, eventually, it will look like:

 

The corner I just did is the bottom left. Looks darker in their photo than mine does, actually it looks darker than the yarn itself. Perhaps it's the lighting.

Anyway, I bought it a few weeks ago because it was on sale and I wanted it, and I'm not at all unhappy with my purchase. The pattern is simple -- it makes good tv knitting -- but not so simple I fall asleep while knitting it. This, to my mind, is perfection in knitting.

My only complaint is the instructions that are included. I had to have a friend help me interpret them, in particular the order in which you knit the squares, which is just wrong, imho. It's obvious enough, I suppose, if you read the written instructions first and don't look at the pictures below that show you how to pick up stitches. But the diagrams seem to indicate one thing, while the wording describes another. My tip: Follow the written directions, ignore the illustrations unless you need help figuring out how to pick up stitches. And she gives no specifications on how to put on the border -- I swear to you that the instructions for the border are "With (black yarn), knit a Garter st border around the blanket."

That's it. Now, I'm experienced enough to figure it out even though I've never knit a border onto a blanket before, but I can only imagine what a newb without a knit group (or Ravelry, and that thought is sending me into palpitations) would feel. She doesn't tell you how many stitches to pick up per square for your border, or which sides to knit first (which doesn't really matter, I suppose, since the blanket is square), or even specify that you knit it on along the side (as opposed to knitting it on, so that you're only knitting something like four stitches but attaching it every row and then mitreing the corners.)

I'm aggravated on the newbs' behalf, really. I mean, the design is beautiful, and it's really clever color work, but someone is falling asleep in the editing department. It's not difficult if you're fairly aware of the rule to read the instructions before you begin (granted, a failing of mine) and can guess what sort of border to put on, but it can initially be very confusing.

That's all the knitting news that's fit to print lately. My big debate is this: We've got weather rolling in tomorrow -- thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms. But it's Sunday, my traditional movie day. Do I go to the movies and then clothes shopping? Or do I stay in, sit all cuddled up in my chair with cocoa, chocolate croissants and my knitting and watch the storms?

Oh, my. I just answered my own question there, didn't I?