Tag Archives: white

Itchy fingers

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Last night I finally made it into the repeat section of the shawl chart. And there was much rejoicing. I’ve got about 40 rows completed thus far… and each row is beginning to take a bit extra time to get through. I knew it would happen, but I was hoping I’d get a bit further before it began. On the other hand, it’s still really enjoyable to knit… the JaggerSpun Zephyr is quite soft; a big improvement over the laceweight yarn I had initially picked out. I sit at work and wish I could be at home knitting on the shawl even though I know I need to work on the paper I have due on Saturday. Unfortunately, my job involves a lot of typing and mousing… both hands constantly occupied… so no real way to get knitting in at the same time. *sigh*

Lace Shawl, Part the Second

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After taking that wonderful picture showing everything right again in my lace shawl knitting world, I ran a lifeline through my active stitches and continued onward… only to realize that I was missing a stitch somewhere. Thankfully, it was relatively easy to find and fix, but I had to pull out the lifeline to do it. *sigh*

After another purl row, the lifeline was put back in and I have been able to continue work without difficulty… so far. I’ve gotten a total of 30 lace rows done so far… it seems like so much… it seems as if this pattern works up quickly if I just sit down and work on it. Then, I remember that each row will only get longer and longer as I go on… and soon I will be cursing the shawl for not growing quickly enough.*

Soon to come: Pictures of the Needle-Eating Socks… and how they got that name.

*Knitting this shawl is beginning to resemble my relationship with my sister…. Thus, I dub this The Sister Shawl.

Two Days of Tinking Later

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Before:

Back to where I was:

It only took me 2 days to tink back 4 rows, reknit everything, realize that the dropped stitches were fortuitous because there was a mistake 2 rows below where I had tinked back to…. so back I went again, this time a little further… and back up. Now I will put in a lifeline before I do any more knitting.

This is the way we tink the shawl….

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I tried to fix the hole three times, but after awhile I wasn’t sure which thread was from which row (it had dropped down 3-4 rows)… which stitch was supposed to be twisted or ssk or how many yarn overs I was missing. The stitches I was remaking were awfully tight making me think I had created a few stitches that weren’t meant to be there. I had a vague idea of where I was and what needed to be done… but I was missing a couple of stitches… I think.

This morning I just decided that I would actually be getting somewhere round about now if I had just started tinking instead of trying to reconstruct. There would probably be less frustration as well. Knitting has certainly taught me that mistakes are fixable… some just take more time than others. The lesson learned this week: When I think that perhaps I should stop and put in a lifeline, I should stop and put in a lifeline. Being able to just take this off my needles and rip back to a lifeline would be so much easier than slowly… painstakingly picking each stitch out. Sure, the purled rows are a breeze, but I’m not looking forward to taking out the three-stitches-to-one decreases in the next row.

Tomorrow, if all goes well with the tinking, I will post before and after pics.

Dropped stitches can be picked up, just like buildings rebuilt after an earthquake*.

*I’ve had earthquakes on the brain lately… having several will do that I guess.

In the Face of Disaster

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Knitting away on the shawl the other night (within rows of getting to the repeat section) I dropped a couple stitches on a purling row*… and of course, in lace, dropping a couple of stitches turns into dropping several stitches. Thankfully, I am beginning to get a feel for the design** and believe I can fix it without too much difficultiy… just need to find a time when my patience is at an all time high.

*I was tired and should have known better than keep knitting on a lace pattern… but it was so close… I was almost there… *sigh*

**I have only just realized that I have to mention what design I am using for my sister’s shawl… it’s the Anne shawl out of Stahlman’s Shawls and Scarves.

Lace Shawl, Part 1

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I, unfortuantely, did not get anywhere near where I wanted to be the other night because I had to tink out a couple of rows. I think when I get to the repeat section I’ll put in a lifeline… it would be so much easier to be able to rip back to a place I knew was right rather than trying to figure out where one mistake might be and slowly, stitch by stitch, work back to it…. especially as the shawl grows in size.

I need to clean all my knitting stuff off the spare bed sometime this afternoon. My sister is flying out to Florida to see her fiancee and needs to be at the airport at 5:30 Wednesday morning, so she’ll be staying with us Tuesday night. Haven’t had to use the guest bed in some time, and it had thus become a wonderful place to stack all sorts of spinning and knitting related items. Now I need to find homes for all of them… fun fun.

I think I will try to work on the shawl some more after I clean off the bed.

Lace Shawl: The Beginning

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I thought I was getting off to a good start casting on my sister’s wedding shawl a week and a half ago. I have even gotten into the lace pattern, but I haven’t yet reached the repeat section. I figure I ‘ve got about 2 and a half months to finish it and still have time to block it… I just need to sit down and do it. If it weren’t white I’d feel more comfortable taking it places, but I’m terrified of getting it dirty.

I will try to at least get to the repeat section tonight, and then, the shawl will go with me to the LYS tomorrow for several hours of knitting.

I should take a picture of it before I start working on it tonight so that I can really see the progress as I go.