Necessity is

The mother of invention.

Surely you've heard that adage before. It was made clear to me yesterday.

I finished knitting the cable and rib pattern at the waist line of the sweater for Rick. Next the instructions had me knit a round making some increases. Following that round, the body of the sweater begins. The body has three cable patterns repeatedly interspersed between moss stitches.

At a glance I knew there was no way I was going to be able to keep the directions straight the way they were written. I copied the instructions over in such a way that I could check off what was done and keep track of my place.As the sweater was currently employing every stitch holder I own I thought I'd run up to the sewing/craft store for some more. I had just enough time while the Artist was as Tae Kwon Do to make the trip and still get my treadmill walk in for the night before I had to pick my daughter up again after class.

Of course I see when I get there, the store fixtures are 90% empty. The store is closing for a few days tomorrow while they move across the parking lot to a larger space. They will have them for me at the new location on Monday. I whine in my head, "But I need them NOW!!!"

On the way home I got an idea... I had switched to the larger needles by this point, (US 7) but I thought this will still work! Ah-- success--Two labels, sticky sides together, make a nice stitch marker. And I can differentiate cable pattern A from patterns B and C , which was my goal all along. The gold rings with beads mark the beginning (2 markers) and half-point (one marker) of the round. Over the weekend we had some friends visit. I thought I had a photo of the train yard they had built all over the living room floor to tie in nicely with the invention theme today. Apparently, I only thought I took a snapshot of that. Rats!

Well, they girls used their creativity to make some Hawaiian leis.
And the guys got to work on their basketball shots.