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Repeat After Me …
I will not knit when I am tired.
I will not knit when I am tired.
I will not knit when I am tired.

The consequences of not adhering to the mantra results in a guaranteed frogging session the next day. I am, of course, speaking of the VH1 Shawl. This little bugger has been a Two Steps Forward, One Step Back kinda project, mainly because I've been knitting in bed until I'm sleepy. And since I'm in a confessional mood …

My Dirty Little Secret

Ha! I got some skeletons in my closet
and I don't know if no one knows it
Eminem Cleaning Out My Closet

I don't know why I said that -- there's no secret. Just wanted a provocative headline.

Let's climb into the Wayback Machine, Sherman. Many, many moons ago, Boye created one of the first modular knitting needle systems, called KnitMate. Very cool idea in theory, but they offered no way to corral the accumulated needle and cable sets. Throughout the '80s, I purchased separate needle and cable sets as needed, for various projects. I never accumulated the entire set (don't knit on #2s very often, eyesight's bad enough, thank you very much). Fast forward to 2003 -- here's my KnitMate system. The cables and needles have withstood the test of time, but what's not apparent in the picture is the Scotch tape holding the packages together:

What a Mess.


Sometime during my 15-year knitting hiatus, Boye discontinued KnitMates and introduced the NeedleMaster system: essentially the same cable 'n needle combo, but packaged into a nice, tidy carrying case:

Now I Can Get Them to Buy Twice! (sez Mr. Boye)


Of course, you can't buy the nice, tidy carrying case by itself. I fumed about that for awhile, plus I just couldn't stomach the $79-$99 price range of the new Needlemaster system. So imagine my surprise when Herrschners offered the NeedleMaster set for the much more attractive price of $59.99. So I ordered it. And the whole stinkin' KnitMate mess goes onto Ebay next week. Let somebody else sort it out.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Ed. Note: It's Saturday morning, and I'm re-reading my grumpy post of the night before. Apologies to all. Go read Marcia's lovely post of last night. It made me ashamed of my curmudgeonly-ness. Again, have a nice weekend, everyone. I'm off to resume Taxi-Mom duties, ferrying RockStar to his Saturday morning guitar lesson.