Friday, May 3, 2013

Happy Dance! Happy Dance!


Guess why I’m doing the happy dance this morning!  I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.

The. Lace. Shawl. Is. Finished.


Yes, that’s right, the knitting equivalent of my life’s nemesis has been conquered and I feel like celebrating!  I worked so much on this thing yesterday that my right arm, wrist, and hand hurt.  I only had six rows to go, but three of those rows were made up of over 1400 stitches (yes, that’s two zeroes).  Do you know how long it takes to knit a lace-weight row of over 1400 stitches?? 

Too stinking long.

In hindsight, I feel bad for The Husband because I was SO grumpy last night trying to get through those last three rows; he just couldn’t win no matter what he said or didn’t say.  I finally bound off the last stitch and immediately blocked it and felt my mood lift about 220%.

What I’m Proud Of
I’m extremely proud of myself for not following through on my threat to make this thing a dust cloth.  I’m also proud that I came out the other side of this challenge not hating lace weight yarn.  Okay, it’s not my closest friend, but it’s not really my enemy either.  Much.

What I’m Not So Proud Of
I’m not so proud of the quality of my knitting and blocking on this project.  I’m chalking it up to being a rookie at lace.  The first thing I noticed when I got it pinned for blocking is that one of the eyelets in the many rows of eyelets is much bigger than the rest.  This is the biggest problem with the finished shawl.  Look:


Of course, this glaring irregularity occurs smack in the middle of the thing, so as to be easily identified.  Yay…

The Shawl is Kinda Blob-ish
I’m also not so proud that I clearly have a disability when it comes to blocking lace.  After a brief consultation with Leona, I realized that I bound off too tightly, which is part of the problem.  I also need more experience using blocking wires.  The thing ended up with kind of a weird shape overall.  So weird, I'm too embarrassed to put up a photo of the whole thing.  It looks marginally better than the cartoon to the right.  I honestly should have waited until this morning to block it.  But then it wouldn’t be finished.  And I wouldn’t be doing a happy dance.  “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” 

So, will I wear it?  Probably.  Will I wear it in public?  Undecided.  But I must say, the alpaca lace is incredibly soft and feels really good around my shoulders.  Maybe it will be my go-to garment for those days I want to just curl up in a corner in the fetal position.  Which will hopefully be few and far between.  Probably only when I knit lace…

***  ***  ***

4 comments:

  1. It's fantastic! You're amazing! Definitely, you must wear it. All the time! X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, you are too kind! And thanks for reading! : )

      Delete
  2. Well done for sticking with it. Many (including me) would have given up. As for the hole, I sometimes knit into the stitch below and create a hole. If I spot it too late to go back, I do a tiny darn. I think you could make the hole disappear like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Una! I may try to fiddle with it after I've recovered from the actual knitting!

      Delete

You will need to choose a selection under the "Comment as" drop down menu. You can comment using just your name by choosing the "Name/URL" option.