The good, the bad and the boucle

I couldn't wait to get home last night and tackle the Trellis Shawl stitch count problem. There is absolutely no way in the whole wide world I could have tinked back with that yarn. I am sure there is someone who could do it, but me? Not on your life. And after knitting a good 3 feet (or more) of this monster I wasn't about to start over either. The bad part about knitting with boucle is that it is just way too easy to mistake a curl for a stitch. But then again, the good part about knitting with boucle is that the curls can mask mistakes quite handily. The trellis pattern isn't that obvious unless you hold the fabric up to let the light through the holes. In that case, knowing that there was a mistake there, my DH was able to ascertain that yes indeed, it did look as if it zigged and zagged and zigged and zigged. But to the casual eye it will not be obvious. Just can't let my friend Peggy near it. Peggy is one of those knitters that I will never ever be - she's a perfect knitter. Everything she makes is so darned gorgeous!

I am still experimenting with ways home from work. It is now very obvious to me that I live on the top of a hill, so getting home is always going to involve at least a mile of steady uphill climb. My goal was to find path that would lead me home while skipping the steeper hills. What I've discovered the past couple afternoons is that my first inclination was the best. And it is the most logical - get off the trail at 97th and take the fairly gentle hill up to Sandpoint Way and just bite the bullet and power up those 20 blocks. Because the trail is nearly sea level I have to climb both west and north. There is no way for me to skip biking up the hills unless I want to bike down to about 135th and then walk up stairs - stairs as in over 125. Nope, not even carrying my new lighter bike. No matter what back roads I take, climbing to Sandpoint Way is steeper the further north I go even though Sandpoint Way itself does dip at one point. That's why I thought I might be able to find a less steep way up but .. not so far.

All this rain has just made the weeds in the flower beds pop up like crazy! Guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend.