Weather and Knitting

Last post I had been complaining about the warmth.  Sort of.  The day after posting, the weather turned back to the norms for March and my area.  This means cold and damp with temps in the 40's and 50's.  It's been cloudy and damp feeling.

I opened up my cedar chest to get out a WIP.  Ok this had been an FO.  However.  It's my mobius shawl.  I had finished it a year or more ago.  It was just stockinette stitch.  It curled.  Alot. I blocked it, with steam.  It still curled.  I blocked it with misting.  It still curled.  I wet-blocked it.  It still curled.  I tried the steam again with a wet press cloth.  It still curled.  My 12" depth curled to 4".  It also stretched quite a bit, due to my bind off method choice.  It made a nice cowl twirled 2 or 3 times around my neck.  This was not what I wanted.

So I decided to pull out the binding and add.  I had a ball and a half of the same yarn leftover.  I added all of it.  I used seed stitch. The amount of yarn I had gave me approximately 3" of depth of seed stitch.  I bound off using the Russian Bind off but knit through the back loop.  It's not so stretchy that way.  This is a good thing.  The seed stitch also firmed the edge up a bit.  You can see a picture of this shawl on the knitting class page at the Mobius knit class.

I started this post mid March and being unhappy with the weather in general and the state of my WIPs.  It is not the last third of April.  My WIPs have stayed in their chest.  I have finally gotten all the parts aligned to take some pictures for the pages of classes.  I'm still working on this.  My peach tree bloomed 2 1/2 weeks early.  My apple trees are blooming right now.  My lilac bush is starting to blossom, 2 weeks early.  My locust tree is leafing out and it's a month early.  It's been warm, up to 80+ some days.  The result of this weather is a severe lack of motivation to knit or crochet.  I'm slogging through some of the have to be done things.  Share your ways to keep motivated on your projects.