“Intercalary: Inserted between other elements or parts; interpolated” — American Heritage Dictionary.

Last night as I watched Stage 8 of the Tour I waded into the lace section of my Simple Knitted Bodice. Now, I’m not a veteran lace knitter by any means and it still makes me a tad nervous, especially if I’m attempting to multitask . . . but I actually have managed to knit this very lace pattern twice before in the body and the right sleeve of my previous (still unfinished) SKB. So I reassured myself that trying to knit lace and watch the race at the same time was entirely possible.

Round 1 is a simple knit round; Round 2 is where all the k2togs, YOs, and psso’s begin. I finished Round 2 and was set to begin Round 3 when I noticed a gaping hole in the early part of the second round. It was clearly the result of a dropped stitch — which I couldn’t find, no matter how hard I looked. The idea of tinking the entire first round of lace was too much for me to deal with. So I lost my head just a little bit and pulled my needle out, frogged back two rounds, and then put the whole thing in my bag and put it away for the night. My knitting and I both needed a serious time out.

After a dinner break, I came back to finish watching the race and found I could NOT watch it without knitting! I pulled out a hibernating project I’d actually started about a month ago — it’s a summery tank top that I’m knitting without a pattern using some vintage Luster Sheen acrylic. It was hibernating simply because I was getting bored with the endless stockinette stitch; but that made it absolutely perfect for Stage 8 knitting!

I’ve still got a very long way to go on this project, and my first priority is still the SKB. This morning I’ve gotten it back on the needles and I’m making another try at it. I realized where I made my mistake the night before; I was so busy counting my stitches that I neglected to check my work as I went! If I’d done so, I would have seen the hole right away and could have fixed it without incident. Ah, well, live and learn, especially where it comes to knitting lace.

I’ve also continued to acquire new yarn, even though I’m perpetually vowing to STOP BUYING YARN. What am I going to do — avoid my LYS, Ravelry’s destashing group, and every other web site on the internet?

This week I received a nice package from Grumperina with some Claudia’s Handpainted in Paprika and some vintage GGH Sprint which I think will make some lovely socks.

I also went back to Babetta’s on Friday and picked up (along with another circular needle and the Berroco booklet Peruvia #264) two balls of Crystal Palace Panda Silk . . . more socks!

And . . . there’s more! Another visit to Ravelry’s Destashing group brought me four lovely skeins of Knit Picks Elegance, two in a colorway called Grass, and the other in yellow (I think it’s called Daisy). Thanks again to fellow Raveler Slurrr!

Yesterday I went over to celebrate my sister’s birthday a day early, and I presented her with the Tofutsies ankle socks. She seemed delighted with them — and surprised, as this was the first pair of socks I’ve ever knit for anyone other than myself. I know she doesn’t like to wear socks in the summertime (I’m the same way) but hopefully she’ll enjoy using them when the weather eventually cools off.

We had a nice Round Table pizza for lunch and played our favorite card game, Kings In The Corner. We also played around with a gift from one of her friends, the electronic game 20 Q. That’s the one where you think of “something” and the little device asks you yes or no questions and then tries to guess what you’re thinking. It works pretty well . . . but when it guesses wrong, it really guesses wrong. When it was my turn I thought of knitting needles (what else?) and after quizzing me for 25 questions, it guessed that I was thinking of . . . a Rubic’s Cube!