As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm currently in the process of knitting a beautiful lace shawl for the Chaos Gremlin (formerly known as the Teen). This has definitely kept me occupied in my free time this week - Sunday morning I spent 3-4 hours knitting, then Monday evening another 3 hours or so undoing half of what I'd done the previous day. Sigh. It turns out the ability to differentiate between p2tbl and p2togtbl is quite important, and was what I'd completely overlooked. And although I should have only had to undo one complete row, the undoing was itself complicated and resulted in a dropped stitch or two which needed to be taken further back to rectify properly. For all that I was very tempted to put it to one side and forget all about it indefinitely, Gremlin's (polite) impatience to have the finished shawl, and my own pride in being able to complete it won me over, so Tuesday night I picked it up again, made real progress and got past the sticking point.
As with so much in life, once I slowed down, looked at what had happened, and prepared properly to continue (in this case, counting the number of stitches on the needle for the tricky segment of pattern repeat and comparing this to the number of stitches needed for that section in the next row), everything fell into place and it turned out not be so complicated after all. I'm sure there's a lesson hidden in there for me somewhere if only I could see it... ;-)
I've managed to continue past that bit, and now that I know what the mistake was, know not to repeat it. But in my usual fashion, that just means I've found new ways of making mistakes. Last night trying to get a second row done in the evening, even knowing it was far too late really to start a row at 10pm when I should be heading up to bed, I ploughed on, and discovered that I'd forgotten to pass a slipped stitch over in some of the regular decreases to make the holes. Fortunately, having realised what I'd done, it was possible to fix that without having to undo anything, and I now know not to rush those but to just make sure I work the whole stitch properly. Yes, I know that shouldn't need saying, but apparently it does!
I'm now at the point where the urge to see the finished shawl in all its wonder is just about enough to keep me motivated. On the needles it looks small and bobbly - but once it's washed and blocked properly (pinned out carefully while it's wet, to help it set into its proper shape) it will look beautiful. I've held it carefully a couple of times for some pictures, just to assure myself it really is worth the slog! As of today, there are just 11 rows to go - plus casting off. So I reckon that's a mere(!) 12 hours or so... if I'm lucky!
The yarn and needle for the next shawl - a mercifully chunky one, although with several new and complicated-looking techniques I've not done before, of course - has already arrived, so that's an encouraging thought. But I think I might be sensible and use some scrap yarn from my enormous stash in the loft to practice the new things rather than just running at it headlong in my usual fashion. Maybe.
Making good progress with my knitting has been a wonderful side-effect of my renewed attempts at self-care. Finishing work and leaving the office at a sensible time means I have more evening in which to relax, and going to bed when I should means I get enough sleep so that I'm not completely wiped out at the end of every day. Who knew! Now I just need to apply that same discipline to not starting 'just one more row' late in the evening, knowing that it's going to take around 45 minutes to complete.
Comments