Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ready to quit...but I WON'T

I guess I became a bit of a knitting snob after completing my Latvian Mittens. After all I did knit them all by myself! I followed the directions in the book and ended up with a nice pair of mittens. OK, so I had to rip them out and restart them once, but overall it was a pretty low stress affair. 

Now enter the "birthday shawl". It is making me crazy!!!  First I spent a very long time deciphering the pattern. It was labeled for "Advanced Beginners". After the mittens I thought I could at least do an "advanced beginner" project. Well, apparently not!
As you can see there is purple yarn attached to my lovely yellow shawl yarn. Well, the pattern starts off with a provisional cast on. Since I had never heard of a provisional cast on I had to do a bit of research, and call my mom. I love my mom, but now that I am in my 40's do I really need to call her for knitting help again?? Yes. "Thanks Mom!"

But the provisional cast on is for another day. Back to the Birthday Shawl.

I am not sure it will ever turn into a shawl. I am looking at it right now. I am so dismayed that I don't even want to take a picture to show you. So, close your eyes and imagine the picture above with about 10 more beautiful yellow rows. However, they are deceiving because now I only have 125 stitches instead of the 130 I started with. I feel like I am out of my league on this one.

I already got this far once and ripped it out. And now it's decision time again. Do I rip it all out and start "fresh", or do I keep going and just add in a few stitches back in? The later choice sounds good, however, trying to do this along with YO's and SSK's all over the place is quite a challenge.
I think a glass of wine and early to bed can help to solve just about any knitting problem. I'm sure it will not look so daunting in the morning:)

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