Planning gone awry

Sweaters are best knit in the winter. Hopefully, you can finish them in a timely fashion to be worn while the weather is still cold. And as they near completion that large knitted object acts like a blanket in your lap!

Sweaters should not be knit in the summer.

Plans can go awry. This is why I still have the button band to finish on cloudberry cardigan when the temperature is starting to rise above 80 degrees. Best laid plans.

But isn't it starting to look done? The deadline for completion is August 5th. That is the date by which I must drop the sweater off at the state fair for judging.

Notes on how I shall finish: a hemmed button band with scalloped edge and button holes is not something I've made before. It's intimidating, and I'm not sure I can explain how to do it well enough to put it in a pattern. Oh well. The gist is: knit a few rows and place the button hole stitches on waste yarn. Finish the row, as I go the other direction (probably the WS) I shall provisional cast on for the stitches on the waste yarn. Once I finish the RS of the hem I shall do the picot and turn. On the wrong side I will pick up the provisional cast on to bind off those stitches. Picking up the stitches on waste yarn I will use those as live stitches on the following row.

I fully intend to embroider around the button holes to reinforce them. I'm also crossing my fingers that this method works.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

Ball pit assemblage & maintenance

Quick notes and then the meat of this post:

-Cloudberry cardigan continues to go slowly. It shouldn't surprise me (but of course it did) that making those Estonian flowers is time consuming (3into9 lace stitches are hard).

Are there too many cookies?

-This weekend was much better than last to turn the oven on. There was definitely the first world problem of too many cookies.

 

Now, to the ball pit!

Rules of the ball pit

1. No jumping (we have downstairs neighbors)

2. No throwing the cat into the ball pit (for obvious reasons, but of course he decided he was totally cool with the ball pit all on his own.)

See the cat that went into the ball pit of his own accord.

3. No food or drink. (Again, obvious)

4. No hanky-panky. (Um... This could just say no bodily fluids. Ew. I've told a few people that asked, if they really wanted to ... They may so long as they wash every single ball by hand.)

After the rules are all the warnings. And they are serious. (My roommate did the math for how tall.)

The rules and warnings of the ball pit were easy to divise. Maintenance?

Apparently, once the balls are in the room ... They go everywhere!

When we first planned the ball pit the idea was to use the furniture as the barriers to the ball pit. This works great. People can sit on the chairs or in the ball pit! You can lay down and use the chair as a head rest.

But what about balls escaping underneath that lovely chaise lounge? Last weekend I did this ...

It was so much fun, and so tedious at the same time. Perfect morning chore. First I pushed most of the balls to one side of the room. Then I placed the window screen in the middle carefully wedging it down past the balls until it rest on the floor. Then all balls on the wrong side of the fence got moved. As I put more balls on the right side (in the picture) tons and tons of balls started rolling out from under the chaise lounge. I would guess 100-150 had gotten lodged up underneath the lounge. There is now a large rectangular rubber maid bin beneath the lounge ... I'd wager that the ball pit is a good 4" higher with no balls hiding.

In a few weeks we'll take the ball pit down (or bag it up). It really isn't as much fun as the weather gets hot. The practice of shoveling balls from under the chaise has shown us the best way to clean up ... Just shovel the balls into bags. Plus, as Minnesotans we've had plenty of practice this winter. We're expert shovelers.

Finally, what everyone wants to know. What does this kind of adventure cost.

There are multiple places on eBay and amazon that sell ball pit balls. Luckily I live in a large metropolitan area close to a large chain of toy stores that all carried the 250 count balls for around $30 a bag. I bought out two stores (4-5 bags each) and picked up a few more from a third store. I have 3,250 balls in the room. Depending on your location and what's available at the time ... You could spend anywhere form $200-$800 on balls.

But this experience has been priceless.

 

Be excellent to each other!