Ay! Oh! Where did you go? Ohio*

Last week, my mom, aunt, cousin and I drove to Ohio to see the exhibit of Princess Diana's dresses. Luckily for our budget, my aunt and uncle have friends who live near Dayton, and they invited us to stay at their house. My first thought when we finalized our plans was, "Oh boy, all that time in the car to knit!" I wasn't really in the middle of anything, and I don't like to start a project on a trip, because you never know what will crop up once you've started, but I picked up the stitches for the back of my FLAK and took along the yarn and pattern to start the Fairy Net Blouse from the latest issue of Knits. Things did not go well. Problem #1: I found out that I get carsick when I knit in the car, so I could only knit for short periods of time. Problem #2: I only had time to pick up the stitches on the FLAK before I left, not start the pattern, and I really didn't want to do it in the car, where I wouldn't be able to concentrate on getting it right. Problem #3: I brought what looked like plenty of yarn for the Fairy Net Blouse, but I ran out before we even got to Ohio. Smart move, eh?

I did find some quiet time Sunday to do the first couple of rows of the FLAK back, and did a few more rows on the way home, but I had added a cable at the last minute, and didn't look too closely at the pattern before I left, so I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. I stopped at row 5, figuring there was no point going any further until I was sure I had gotten the pattern right. Naturally, I hadn't, so I frogged the whole section and started over last night. I'm almost through one pattern repeat, and I'm being careful to check my cable crossings after every row so I can catch any mistakes in time to fix them easily.

As for the Fairy Net Blouse, I did some tinkering with the pattern, but it was while we were in the car, so I don't know if it'll work or not. I did it my usual way--add a few stitches here, leave out a couple rows there--without sitting down and figuring out if it will actually make the pattern fit better. Before I go any further, I really need to sit down and do some calculations to see if I can salvage what I've done so far. Also, I didn't read the pattern ahead of time to see that there is a turned hem. I have instructions for doing a no-sew version, which I would prefer, but since I hadn't read the pattern, I didn't know to take them.

So despite all my dreams of uninterupted knitting time, the most I will have accomplished is 5" of one sweater, and the least is nothing. Great.

By the way, the Princess Diana exhibit? Awesome!

*With apologies to Chrissie Hynde