Rain. Yep. It’s Oregon and Halloween alright.

Actually, I usually remember Halloween here as being fairly dry. There was that one Halloween when #1 Son was about 5 or 6 that it rained cats and dogs. All of the parents making the rounds with their kids huddled under umbrellas. #1 Son, usually an irrepressible trick-or-treater, called it quits after only one block. But it was only that one year that was so bad, as I recall.

A far cry from my own childhood. I remember working so hard on my costume each year, only to have to cover it up with a coat because it was usually about 30 degrees and sometimes there was snow on the ground. Towards the end of my trick-or-treating career, I gave up and went as a ghost. At least my coat would go under it.

Have I mentioned that my father was part-owner of a wholesale company that carried, among other things, candy? Halloween was the only time of year he brought any candy home. My brother and I were allowed to pick out a couple of things for ourselves, and the rest went to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Our house was very popular at Halloween.

I’ve almost finished Tilt. The sleeves are blocking on my bed. The yolk pieces and the midriff piece have been attached. I need to complete the button band and the collar and attach the sleeves. The, a little steam blocking and it’ll be ready for prime time. I hope.

Last night I was knitting away on the sleeves and had made it almost to the shoulders when I looked down and saw a funny looking spot towards the wrist of one of the sleeves. I looked closer. Oops! I’d apparently put my work down at that point, and when picking it up started off the wrong way, creating a nice short row in the middle of my work. I debated about what to do. I really didn’t want to re-knit almost the entire sleeve. I tried laddering down to the “bad” spot and then recreating the row sans short-row stitches, but after two fixed stitches I realized that just wouldn’t cut it. It was too far down and there were about 20 stitches involved. Too many.

Finally, with shaking hands, I cut the offending short row out and grafted the 20 released stitches back together as they should have been. And it worked! I have a sleeve that’s nice and straight and has all rows going the full width. It’s not a solution that I would recommend to the faint of heart, though.

I’ve not posting the Magic Cast-On. Kalani has convinced me to submit it to Knitty. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned. Film at 11.