Created By Artsygal

At one point I had grand plans for the shetland tea shawl I was working on. I started it in October, and despite being the first real piece of lace I've knit, despite being a notoriously slow knitter, and despite knowing I get bored to tears knitting the same thing repeatedly, I thought I could finish it in time to wear on New Years Eve. That was not to be. I got through the entire body of the shawl without a glitch and was feeling quite confident of my abilities. And then it happened.

I reached the border. 115 repeats of the SAME pattern. Stitch count varying between 17 and 22 a row. 10 rows per pattern repeat. Did I mention, 115 repeats? It isn't that it was hard. The pattern itself was a piece of cake compared to the diamond pattern I had just completed. And it wasn't that it was such a HUGE amount of knitting - only 17 - 22 stitches a row. But the 115 repeats! That did me in. Turning my work around so frequently drove me nuts. Working with one end of my circular flapping around drove me nuts. I lost the will to go on. And so I bundled up the shawl in my knitting bag and sent it off to the naughty corner.

Then, Karen announced to me that she was up to the border of hers. She had caught up to me! Not that this was a race or anything, but it made me start giving the corner a few guilty glances. I picked the shawl up a few times. Knit a row or 2. And slowly, I got into the swing of things. I managed to memorize the pattern. That sped things up. I knit enough so the circular needle was no longer so crowded that stiches were in danger of sliding off the other end and making a run for the canadian border. That improved my mood. Before I knew it.. look!

I'm almost half way there! (and yes, that is a bottle of laundry detergent you see in the corner. I was knitting at the laundromat and snapped a couple of quick pictures on their nice big folding table)

Incase you need a little more convincing:

I even made you a pretty schematic. I was posting this in my gallery earlier before setting up the blog and had abandoned it. But it's back. I look forward to colouring in those little points till there aren't any left.

Now that the needle is half empty, I'm gaining speed. I no longer need to use a bamboo dpn to knit the stitches off the circular - I can just use the other end of the circular itself. No more dangly needle! And instead of knitting with one addi turbo, and one bamboo needle (which made for some interesting times!) I'm using the addis on both the knit and purl row. That too has made the experience much more pleasurable. I am once again looking forward to knitting this shawl and completing it. Then I can face my next demon - blocking lace for the very first time.

Wish me luck.