Davis Street Shawl from CloseKnit -Day 3

Poetic and fuzzy...

Some projects don’t give up their progress easily.  You have to dig deep for the benchmarks that are going to make you feel like you’re getting somewhere.  

I just passed the hand off from ball of yarn #1 to ball of yarn #2--the quintessential “halfway home.”  Of course, it’s not really a visual half-way.  It will take much more yarn to accomplish these longer rows, so I won’t get a shawl that’s twice as long as the one I have now.  

The “fuzzy math” is that I’m probably two thirds through the length even if I’m one half through the yarn.  Truth be told, my last row on this shawl will be my longest.  It’s rather poetic when you think about it.

Remind me of the poetry when I’m slogging through endless inches of garter in about half a ball...

Davis Street Shawl from CloseKnit -Day 2

What's the point?

I’m not a big fan of edge-up shawls.  The work goes more slowly with each row, and it’s always tough to gauge when to stop.  I always end up measuring back from the yarn end to make sure I’ve got enough for the bind off row, and I never get it right.  Being as tall as I am, I need all the length I can squeeze out of a ball of yarn, so I try never to stop until I absolutely have to. Which gets me into trouble.

Still, that’s not what unnerves me about this shawl.  It’s those picots, those little bumps waiting for me at the end of every row.  They look so cute in the photos--all sweet and scallop-y.  Subtler than pom-poms but with more style than a selvedge edge.  I want them to work, want them to look like clever trimming instead of ugly growths bulging off the end of each row.  

Some rows I look at the funny bump and think it just looks like my shawl has warts. Other rows I hold it up and think, “eh, not so bad.”  The fuzz and the color work against me here...they make it hard to judge.

I know there are at least three that I totally botched, but I’m hoping they won’t show.  I’m choosing to soldier on, trusting that there will be strength in numbers.  You know what they say, “never judge September apples in June.”  I’m trying not to judge a triangle by only it’s point.

And maybe that’s the point (pun intended).  Sometimes we only see the beauty of our experience in hindsight.