Half or half-not...
Sometimes, you have to back up your feelings with some hard facts. It makes you feel validated, helps you understand exactly why it feels like this middle section is taking forever.
So, as I groaned at the prospect of devoting yet another post to the pretty-but-lengthy middle section of this shawl, I sat down with the pattern and my calculator. I wanted to be able to convince myself that I was more than halfway done with the shawl. That would ease my anxiety about being more than halfway done with the posts.
Yes, I know, anxiety about knitting isn’t the goal here, and I don’t fool myself that any of you are sitting around thinking “Where’s Allie with that fourth post—it should have been here by now.” I am a woman of plans and schedules, and it makes me crazy when I can’t adhere to my schedule, even for fun reasons.
And don’t get on me about scheduled fun. This is my chosen neurosis, let me own it.
Back to facts.
I sat down and calculated how many rows were involved in this long section. There are 192 rows—and ever-elongating rows at that. This high number made me feel better about the length of time it’s taken me to accomplish this section.
Then I calculated how many rows were involved in the next final portion, an alternation between sections 4 and 5. It’s only 94 rows. Still a sizable number, but much less that the current portion. Yes, math can indeed be a source of encouragement! I do understand that the rows continue to get longer, and by the end of this section I’ll be slogging through 243-stitch rows instead of 184-stitch rows, but that feels acceptable.
I am more than halfway through this shawl, and that makes all the difference. Yea for math, and yea for me!
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