Sunday, November 11, 2007

Fifth Times a Charm

That's right. You read correctly. FIFTH time! I wish I could say third times a charm, but that just wasn't so with this particular project. I am making the Diamond Knit Shawl by Lion Brand. I've been wanting to make a lace shawl, but wasn't sure that I wanted it to take a long time like it would on lace weight. I found a pattern that uses a bulky weight and I had plenty of yarn for it in my stash. Double bonus. I found the pattern on Ravelry. Once again, kudos for Ravelry!! Anyway, I have done lace before and wasn't having any problems with this pattern. Then two days ago I had a horrible thing happen. I got to the end of the row and I didn't have enough stitches left to finish the repeat. Never a good thing. So I frogged back and fixed the error. Then continued along with the pattern only to have the same thing happen again two or three rows later. Again, I frogged. This happened 4 times! I couldn't believe it. For me, it is difficult to frog when the pattern has yo's. So I would have to frog back to a row that didn't have any yo's.

Fortunately I can report that I stuck with it and finally got my grove back. I was so upset yesterday and was complaining about how many times I had to frog the dang thing that my boyfriend said, "Maybe you should try working on something else. This project doesn't seem to be making you very happy." He means well, but he's not a knitter so he just doesn't understand. I knew I just had to persevere to win the battle. :)

Here's the progress of the shawl after getting back on track:

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And since I haven't been great about posting pictures, here's one of me teaching :)

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3 comments:

lbquilts said...

Loved reading about your teaching experiences since I'm a retired band director! Keep knitting as a stress releiver...I also quilted & gardened when I taught...gardening REALLY got my mind off school problems! And the spider basket is so fun...could you share the pattern - my g'daughters would love one next year!! Thanks!
Linda
lbquilts@mchsi.com

knittingma said...

Yay for you for persevering! Your shawl is very pretty. Yeah, my husband doesn't really understand about the knitting, either. He'll say things like, "are you going to do that again tonight?" I don't think guys understand these types of hobbies (or, in my case, these types of obsessions). :)

brunhilda said...

wow, that happens to me every time i knit lace. good for you that you have the patience to keep going! i usually don't :p