I am not a chart person.  I like my knitting directions written out.  Usually. I understand that lots of people find charts easier to use.  They say they can 'visualize' the knitting.  I've never been able to do that.  Well, one my coworkers gave me this metal board with the magnetic ruler.  She's also a knitter and thought I might find it useful.

 I decided to try using the charts for this infernal pattern.  (ok, that's not fair.  It's not the pattern's fault I can't read).  I cut the chart out and it fits the small board quite well and I can use the magnetic ruler to mark the row I'm currently working on.

You can see from the chart that every row is a charted row.  It's not really hard to follow ONCE YOU READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

This stole is constructed differently from anything I have ever made before.  It's made in 6 pieces. There are two center back pieces which are grafted together.  Then stitches are picked up along the sides of the center back and knitted to form the length of the stole.  Then a decorative edging is knit onto the edges.

If I'd read the directions, I'd have known that at the beginning.  I'm sorry to say, I didn't.  I couldn't figure out why the photos of other people's finished and partially finished stoles looked so different from mine.  Then I had a light bulb moment and I got it.  I could actually feel it click into place and I understood. 

Unfortunately, this understanding came with much ripping out and gnashing of teeth.  I cast on the correct number of stitches for the first center back panel and got this far tonight.  It's beautiful and fairly simple now that I know what I'm doing.

Pk warned me that today was probably not the best day to try this again.  I was feeling ornery and irritable all day today.  I even defended disco to my office mate when he stated that 'all disco music was crap'.  I'm not a disco fan but I was feeling contrary so I argued that some disco was enjoyable.

I told Pk I was feeling out of sorts, really tired and like I could just bite someone's head off for no reason.  His solution to this was to walk to the really good candy store and buy me some milk and dark chocolate non pariells.  He brought them to me at lunch time and I was able to make it through the rest of the day and everyone around me got to keep their heads. (and one of the young girls I work with wanted to know where she could find a man who would bring her chocolate when she was having a less than stellar day.  I told her to look elsewhere, this one was taken)

I'm not usually like this.  I was so tired all day.  Last night I fell asleep before 9 and slept soundly until the alarm went off this morning.  8 full hours and yet I still felt exhausted.  Several coworkers said they were feeling the same way so we think it's the flu shots.  They tend to make you feel icky for a bit.  This year was a combined H1N1 and regular flu shot, a double dose of serum.   I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to feel icky on Sunday.

We're having a health and wellness fair at work on October 21.  I asked if anyone had set up a table for leisure skills.  That is a large part of mental wellness, right?  He asked what I had in mind and I volunteered to bring in the spinning wheel and set up a fiber activity table.  It turns out the Medical Director's mother used to own a yarn store and she wants to be involved, too.  I think this will be cool.  Kate is going to come over for the fair as well.  She's going to sit and knit and offer to teach other people.  We can also bring some spindles so people can try spindling as well.  Fiber ambassadors!

That's all the news from our neck of the woods for now.  It's almost time to go to bed.  I'm still tired and want to make sure I get enough sleep to make it through the day tomorrow. 

Have a good Friday.