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…
*** *** ***
It's fantastic! You're amazing! Definitely, you must wear it. All the time! X
ReplyDeleteThanks, you are too kind! And thanks for reading! : )
DeleteWell 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.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Una! I may try to fiddle with it after I've recovered from the actual knitting!
Delete