It's a Big Orange Night

It's only a little more than an hour away....the Big Event I've been anticipating for months now. It's almost tip-off time for the University of Tennessee Men's basketball team to play cross-state rival Memphis. Last year the game was in Knoxville and Memphis suffered a stunning 18 point loss to the up-and-coming Vols under still-new coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl is now a well-established icon at Tennessee. This year the game is in Memphis. The rest of the college basketball world cares because Memphis is ranked #1 in the nation, the Vols are #2---a ranking they've never experienced in Men's B-Ball before. The scalpers are asking 4-figure sums for tickets on Beale St. this afternoon and the pre-game festivities look more like a Saturday afternoon in October...not February. How cool is that???? I'm so stoked !!!


I'm so excited about the game that I knew concentrating on other tasks might be difficult tonight. So I'm getting things done. I've knit 20 rows on my Vision of Delight Scarf already...no guilty feelings for not making progress there today :-) But before I tell you about the scarf, I have to acknowledge that cute little blue box of sunshine. More than a week ago I was offered this big burst of sunshine from my friend Kat. I was having a crummy day. I'm terribly late with this, but gee THANKS!!! I will do as is intended and pass it forward, but give me a day or two to think about it first. I'm a bit distracted at the moment. The ESPN guys just said a pair of game tix sold on ebay for $10,000! That's insane! Of course Memphis is unbeaten thus far this season, so the hype is over the top. I hope Chris Lofton & the guys can change that statistic just a wee bit :-)


So here's the weekly knitting update. I've spent too much time surfing Ravelry and the net and not enough time with the needles clacking so progress on my Vision of Delight Scarf is slower than it should be. I finished the 1st half on Thursday and am almost done with the 1st chart on the 2nd side as I write. I was disappointed to discover that my scarf wasn't working out to be a wide as the designer's measurements. There isn't anything I can do to change that, but I was concerned about the scarf being too short, too. I could do something there. The easy answer was to add one repeat the length of the little curlicue motif along the side border. Nice, but that would add 36 rows of stockinette to the middle...BORING!

I studied Birgit's design and decided the perfect answer was to replicate the tulip motif she had repeated twice at each end border. I added a 3rd one in the center with an extended stem anchoring it to the border. It was the perfect solution to my problem and frankly, I think it takes an already good design and makes it better. When I had the 1st side completed I discovered one more thing I would change if I were to knit this scarf again. On the end, the "tulip"motifs or curly things had a diamond centered at the end...something not found on the center motif. I would add that little diamond to both ends of the center as well.

Also on the knitting front, I've been hunting and gathering in anticipation of future projects. I picked up a couple of balls of Cebelia 20 in white to knit a larger doily/table mat out of. I knocked out most of yesterday afternoon searching and researching doily patterns online. I was surprised at what I learned and just how much really is available. To top it all off, my postwoman dropped off a box from KnitPicks late this afternoon. My yarn is here for the Orkney Pi KAL that Liz Lovick is leading on EZasPi starting next Friday. I'm stoked!!! I really wanted to order a cone of Shetland Supreme Lace yarn from Jamieson & Smith for this shawl as many others are doing, but frugality is more important right now so KnitPicks Bare it is. For the same amount of money essentially, I got all the yarn I need plus 3 circular needles and 4 sets of dpns...all in small sizes so I can really be ready to knit more socks and lace. It was a wise choice for me and my Orkney shawl will still be amazing despite being knit out of Peruvian wool. Life is tough.

Well, that's about it for this week. the pre-game shows are on. I have enough time to add a few more rows to my scarf before tip-off. I'm thinking I may be able to wind one or two hanks of Bare into balls while I watch the game as it requires much less concentration to wind than it does to knit. GO VOLS!!!