Color Affection Shawl from Bliss Yarns - Day 5

We meet again, enemy mine...

Here it is again, my knitting nemesis, the uber-long final row.  I love shawls, I wear them all the time--they’re practically a trademark for me--but the ones that start from the top town always make me nuts.  I’m not an especially patient person, and when a shawl starts with a five-stitch row and ends with a gazillion-stitch row, bad things happen.  I think those final rows took me 15 minutes each, even with my speedy continental skills.  Doing a patient bind-off--a crucial bind off like this one?--well, that may require a glass of wine.  I admit it: I’m nervous I’ll botch this at the finish line.

The trouble with this shawl is that you can’t really see how it’s coming out.  The entire time you are working on it, it is arching in a curve that is opposite how it will eventually sit on your shoulders.  The curved end is forced straight on your needles, and no one (sane) has a set of circ’s long enough to see how the outer edge looks all laid out.  You can’t judge this one until it’s off the needles.  The control freak in me hates this kind of dynamic.  I need to know I won’t cringe when I get it off my needles, and that’s not yet possible.  See, I told you knitting was like life.

A few thoughts as I finish this up:

• I do love the colors I have--all Valentine-y red and such--but think solids in contrasting colors really are the best hue choice.  I’m still playing with the idea of a red,white, and blue version.
• This makes excellent “watching” knitting--TV and such --but wielding the three balls for the middle section makes it a poor choice for out of the house knitting unless you’re better at multi-ball wrangling than I am.
• Take some time and research the various top-edge coping mechanisms other knitters have tried and see what you think might suit you.  I don’t know how mine came out yet, but I’ll try and give a full report next episode.  Stay tuned!

Alligator Scarf from Knitting Under the Influence of Nancy - Day 2

There comes a point in many patterns where you have to trust the instructions--even when they don't make sense.  You can see where you are, see where you will end up, but can't fathom how you'll get from A to B.  The back bumps of this alligator are just such a situation.  I've done enough three dimensional knitting that I understand the basic concepts.  Still, when I reached the "bind off eight stitches tightly" part of these instructions, I couldn't quite picture how those increases were going to turn into alligator bumps.  This is where a knitter has to have faith in her designer.  Faith that--unlike lots of life--following the directions really does achieve the desired results.

And lo and behold--it does! The next line where you knit across tightly produces a row of five tidy alligator bumps.  This is one of those situations where it is best to be knitting amongst your own kind, for a non-knitting friend or spouse doesn't get it when you stuff your successful knitting in their face and demand adulation.  They just don't see the triumph in alligator bumps.  


But we do!

Knit Along: Schmetterling Shawl from Mia BellaDay 5

It’s not over till the tall lady blocks

Definitely not a knit-and-wear item.  This is why we block.  I’m delighted that the shawl is finished, but I couldn’t possibly don it in its current tiny, curly state.  It’s not much larger than a bandana right now, and it looks more like something that belongs in a salad than something that belongs on my shoulders.  It hasn’t gained all its lacy goodness.

Ah, but a nice bath and a good stretch will take care of that in a jiffy.  Properly blocked, this will take on a delicate elegance that will allow the pattern design to really pop.  This one will be lovely.  That transformation on tomorrow’s to-do list, and I can hardly wait.

My week has been full of tending a grumpy, contagious teenage boy on quarantine, so the sense of accomplishment is desperately needed.  Honestly, there are weeks when I’m easily convinced if I didn’t knit, I’d need sedatives. Or anti-depressants.  Or both.

On a practical level, I do have two pattern notes:

• I particularly liked the bind-off on this one.  It has a good elasticity--something often lacking in my bind offs, so I was glad to add a new skill to my toolbox.  It’s pretty and simple, like a backwards version of the knit-two-together bind-off I usually use.  It gives the same sort of serge edge I often use on scarves, and I like that elasticity.  I suspect it will be important as this piece stretches into its full elegance.

• After a grumbling hour unknitting two very long rows, I found I needed to add a “K2” to the first instructions of the border’s first row.  Either it’s a typo, or I messed up earlier repeats.  I should have seen it coming.  If I’d been a thinking knitter, I would have realized how elements in the border needed to line up with elements from the pattern. If I had seen past my blind obedience to see the the overall design concept, I wouldn’t have been an hour’s worth of stitching into the border before I realized my mistake.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve made the mistake of not listening to the small voice in my head saying “something’s not right here.”  Call it “knitter’s intuition.”  And when you hear it, heed it.