A Little Drama

Today bear had a couple of exams. These are mock exams, sat under the conditions of the real thing and the grades will be used in letters of recommendation and such until he gets the results of the proper exams in August. They're not vital but they're quite important. 

Bear overslept. He overslept by nearly two hours. 

I have made it a practice to let bear get up and out by himself for the last few months. I want him to be used to it when he goes away. I'm usually up before him, but I don't chase him. Today I slept in after one of those 'so tired it hurts but can't drift off to sleep' nights. I was woken by bear's cry of horror.

He flew out of bed, rang school and they followed the procedure that they'd use if it was the real exams and sent a taxi for him. He got there in time to join the exam and fingers crossed he will still get a decent mark. It gave the household collective heart failure, but I'm hopeful that he'll never oversleep on exam day again. When the real exams come around, of course I'll be up at 6am anyway, ready to encourage him out of the house in plenty of time. 

I refuse to write about chillies today but I'm incredibly grateful for the advice and feel free to add more. I'll hopefully be able to post more soon.

Normally I'm a wreck during February. I tend to shut down and fester at this time of year. I've not done too badly this year but I suspect that I'm getting some of it now. But March is the day after tomorrow, and I'm determined to get things moving.

Knitting is definitely not moving. Do you remember the fancy yarn and I was knitting a ruffle scarf but it wasn't working? 

I decided to undo it all and knit a throw. I got so far with a knit two rows, twisted dropstitch one row pattern when I realised that the cast on edge was far too tight. 

I don't know if you can see it, but it was pulling the bottom edge in almost like it was gathered, which isn't good for a throw. I used bad language, undid the dratted thing again and tried with plain knit. Once again, despite my best efforts, the cast on was bunching up too much. I considered digging out a bigger knitting needle for the cast on, but I think it may have been my technique. I was using what I know as a cable cast on, which works just fine most of the time. It's great when you're casting on rib, and it's the way I was taught when I was eight - many, many, many years ago.

So I dug out a knitting book.

And hopefully I'll find a nice, loose cast on that isn't the long tail cast on as I'm casting on 100 stitches. 

Hugs and good health to all.