Desparate Times Call for Desparate Measures

I left my bag of current knitting projects at SO's house on Sunday -- this includes the Gulf-of-Mexico-Before-the-Oil-Spill Socks and the knitted blanket squares. That meant that in order to survive my business trip to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday, I had to put another project into play. I selected a simple hat that I'd meaning to make for about a year and a half. I figured I could knock it out during the two plane rides to Chi-town.

To simplify things further, I decided to say "screw the directions" and take the needles I thought would work best. Pride goeth before a fall best describes what ensued.

So, I knitted happily on the plane ride to Chicago. I was loving the way the yarn was looking as I knitted along. By the time I went to bed that night, I had very little left to do -- thus, the first problem: I underestimated the amount of knitting required for the trip. This virtually never happens with socks which take a pretty long time.

The next morning, I decided to finish up the hat and realized the folly of my needle selection. I really did need double pointed needles to finish the crown. I do know this...I just didn't really think when I was packing.

Now. I could have let the hat sit till I got home. But, really. I am far too obsessive to do such a logical thing.

Therefore, I made do with what I could find: an assortment of pens. You can see the hat and the improvised tools below:















All I can say is the it worked but I wouldn't recommend it and it was dirty because I had to use the pen points to stab through to the yarn and the ink got all over my left index finger. I think I will write to the "Dirty Jobs" show about that.

Now, back to the regular projects and contemplating the next move for StitchFace and picking out something to make this weekend from the three new cookbooks that arrived this week.