Return to knitting

For some reason, I have not picked up any knitting needles since I finished Little Dude's birthday ninja.....that was in July!  Why have I been ditching my comfy chair and books-on-CD and hours of fun knitting and woolly creations to keep me and my family warm?  Especially the past few months, prime knitting season?  Why, I ask myself?  The answer is simple: dirty dishes!

Yes, it comes down to that.  Because sometime last Summer, probably around the time I finished the ninja, our dishwasher crashed & died.  And me, being the silly person that I am, thought we didn't need to replace it, I would just wash all the dishes by hand.  Dishes, might I add, for 5 people (one of whom relishes cooking everything homemade) and one spoiled dog who gets a gourmet meal cooked for him almost every night by DH.......but I digress.

So, I've spent much thought on my lack-of-knitting and it dawned on me, as I washed plate after plate, what the problem was.  Too much time cleaning, not enough time knitting!  To remedy this, I have made a point to leave any dirty dishes sit around until morning after the Bachsters go to bed.  That's my time, and I'm going to reclaim it back from the sink!  So, take that dirty dishes, and if you don't back down soon, there will be a trip to Lowe's in my near future!

Anyway, the project is a cowl.  I don't have any cowls, but I do have a handknit scarf made with single-ply yarn that looks like something the gourmet-food-loving-dog of ours dragged through the backyard.  So, I thought a nice cowl would be in order, and to make things more interesting, I'm creating the design myself.  So far, I have three rows done and they look nothing like I intended, so I'm wondering if maybe perhaps I might have made a wee little error somewhere, in which I can either just ignore it and see what it becomes, or "frog" it and start over....which would be the time consuming option, but hey, I'd rather do that than more dishes!

 
I promise to show you the cowl when it's all done!

-Cheryl