In honor of Pi Day, I thought I’d share my somewhat geeky failed geocaching adventure.

A friend of mine asked me if I’d heard of geocaching. Sure. That’s something another friend of ours does with her kids while they’re on vacation (you follow clues until you find the container and you can leave something and take something out of the cache OR just write your name on the list). She said that she had the app or GPS on her phone and we set out to find some treasure. We went to the first site. There were some gentlemen working on a truck, so we had to wait because you’re supposed to be stealthy and not let people see you casing the joint. As you can imagine, I’m not very subtle and ended up combing the entire area like I was on an Easter Egg Hunt.
It seemed we were in the right location, but the only places we found that it might be were inside holes in trees that were half full of damp leaves. Now, I don’t know about you, but there are FEW things that I’m going to reach into a dark hole for and a film cannister with a list for me to write my name on isn’t even close. In case you’re wondering what I would reach into a probably spider-infested hole for:
-qiviut yarn
-Blue Heron Rayon Metallic (Slate/Silver)
–Vicuna Yarn
You may be seeing a pattern here.
We hunted for about 20 minutes and didn’t find anything. On to the next site.
This location was more crowded, so I sat down on a bench and pretended to be playing on my phone while I scoped out the area. No dice. There was supposed to be something near the Red Box machines. One of the boxes was making a really weird and somewhat disturbing noise, so after not finding anything for 10 minutes or so, we decided to call it “the half hour we’ll never get back” and headed off to get some lunch….I remain, the world’s most unsuccessful geocacher.

Happy Pi Day, Everyone! and Happy Birthday to ASR, hope you get some pie!

I was happily knitting along on my Lochness hitchhiker. I had the pattern memorized. I had plenty of yarn. “What could go wrong?” This is like that point in a horror film when someone says, “I’ll be write back.” and you know they’re not coming back.
On the last row of point 38, I switched to the second ball of yarn and knit 4-6 rows and then I went back to weave in the ends. A fine idea. I was pleased with how they disappeared.


Then I picked up the needles to continue knitting point 39. Sons of anarchy! Ten stitches had slipped off the needles! That’s scarey. I picked them up. Whew! crisis averted. I’m a rockstar. wait. where is my row counter? I had a row counter. It tells me what row I’m on. Where the devil is the row counter?!? I begin to dig in the blankets because I’m sitting in bed watching tv and knitting. I find the row counter and it is at that point that I realize that finding it will not tell me what row I’m on. Sweet Fancy Moses, that sucks.

Had I just finished row 4 or row 6? I tried to read the knitting. ummmm.yea. I don’t know. This is my first garter stitch knit since I learned to knit years ago. I could google it, but where the points are throws me off knowing which row I should even be counting from. I start the bind offs for the point and analyze. That looks too soon. I unknit and add the extra two rows and start the point again. After finishing that row, I fold it over and measure the valley between points 38 and 39 against the valley between points 37 and 38. They seem to match. and I’m back in the game!
 

I was able to finish Tuesday evening and I really like how the points of the shadows turned out in the pictures….just like a Lochness monster! Now, it just needs a bath, some serious blocking and Nessie will be off to her forever home.

Ps. To see what other folks are working on, go check out Tami’s Amis.

I knit my fingers to the bone on Sunday. Now, I like to be careful with marathon knitting. I try not to do it often to avoid repetitive motion injuries and all that jazz. But one time a year, I give into the competition of the Iknitarod and go for it. I take breaks and stretch my hands and things, but it’s a lot of knitting for about 10 days. I’m not sure exactly how many stitches I knit on Sunday, but it was a lot. Then, I hit the hay. That’s when things got interesting.
(dream) At night, I am walking home through a seedy part of town and a gentleman was giving everyone batons (and by baton, I mean tactical baton, not high school twirling baton). Everyone was taking them and continuing on their way as we all knew there was some kind of crazy dangerous killer in the area. Why we knew this and were still calmly walking along, I cannot fathom, but it’s a dream. Go with it. Fast forwad a couple of blocks. Generous Baton Guy had looped back and was approaching us again. This time, however, he was throwing full-sized saw blades at us like they were Chinese throwing stars. I blocked one with my baton and I don’t know if it ricocheted or another one appeared, but a saw cut about halfway through my hand as I caught it. Now, I’m not going to pretend to be some kind of weapons expert, but if a saw blade is being thrown at you, for the love of all that is holy, do not try to catch the thing. Avoid it at all costs. Hide behind a car. Duck down very small so it will go over your head. Do whatever you can to get out of the path. DO NOT try to catch it. Again, it’s a saw.
It seems that I was in shock because my hand did not hurt that bad and I was pleased to have caught the thing. My very next thought in this dream was, “damn, I’m not going to be able to knit tomorrow.” My hand is nearly in two pieces and I’m thinking about how soon I can get back to knitting. Ladies and gentlemen, you might have a problem if…..

the rest of the story: I think I had a hand cramp and my brain was working it into my dream. My hands both feel fine now…..and I think we can all agree that the hitchhiker shawl has kind of a saw feel to it.

Ps. I’m working on point 42 and the Iditarod winner should be pulling into Nome sometime tomorrow. Mush!