Mystery Stole Woes and . . . Joy In-a-Box Arrives!

I ran amok with my mystery shawl last night. I must have knit row 51 5 times before finally giving up and going to bed.

This morning I thought "surely I will sort this out quickly." And the gods laughed. I counted, recounted, and parsed 2 rows -- stitch-by-stitch -- to the chart. Still couldn't figure out where I went wrong (still one extra stitch). Ripped back 2 rows. Still screwy. Ripped back 4 rows and inserted a little colorful midwestern patois for good measure.

All the while I was sitting in my living room, glaring out at the street, wondering where the heck my UPS lady was. This morning I checked UPS tracking on the 'net, and next to my spinning wheel were the wonderful words: OUT FOR DELIVERY.

I needed more than this. I needed a turn-by-turn report as to the UPS lady's exact where-abouts. GPS coordinates would be good. Maybe I could intercept --er-- meet her somewhere, and she could fling my wheel in my general direction. It would save her a stop.

Finally, I got to row 52 on my stole. Relief! I am having such a hard time with clue 5! I think I need to seriously tweak my system. I stomped around the house and ate too much cake and growled at my messy son. Then I took him to his dermatologist appointment.

Got home. Still no wheel. Decided that doing laundry might take my mind off of things. It didn't. Stomped around some more. In desperation, I vacuumed (shudder).

While checking my e-mail for the 18th time, I heard the unmistakable sweet dulcet tones of a UPS truck. And, next thing I knew, the UPS lady (delightful woman that she is) was handing me a smallish box. Light, even.

Within a matter of minutes, my Joy (that's the actual model name) was set up and looking, as my sister says, fab-oo:

Profile shot

Fetching rear view

Bailey fails to see the attraction of any of this.

Birds at the bird feeder, however . . .

Joy and I are still making each other's acquaintance, but so far I am very happy. She treadles like silk, and her pared-down design appeals to me. And -- yes! We have yarn! (Or at least a ply!)

Woo-hoo!