I went to a store in downtown Regina "Hip 2 Knit". Apparently there is a very knowledgeable helpful woman there who can answer any question you may have about wool and patterns. Unfortunately, I have been there 3 times and always get her husband who is somewhat less helpful in either department. He will assure me that this or that wool or pattern is really popular and they sell a lot of them. But that is the extent of his help. So, I am on my own. I find a few possibles and it is getting on to 4:45 and the store closes at 5:00 so the gentleman steps in and tries to get me moving a little faster on making a decision. I am persuaded to try this beautiful skein of yarn and this pattern that only uses one skein of yarn and which, in the description, is suppose to be perfect for the beginner lace knitter. And the perfect circular needles to make said project are the last set on his shelf. This is fate speaking to me, I am sure so I buy the yarn, the needles and he gives me a website where I can get the pattern. This is going to be great. I can maybe whip this little number up when I am on holidays in Mexico. I try to forget that I paid $40 for the skein and $20 for the needles. I don't usually buy skeins, but you would just wind it up into a ball right, how hard can that be?
Mexico - day one. I am going to wind this skein into a ball of wool. Hey, there are all these little threads tying bits of the skein together, what could they be for? I cut them. I start to wind. The skein drops on the floor, I just pick it up and chuck it on the bed beside me. Oh Oh, little bit of a knot here. And there. Oh man, look at that big swirl. The skein is completely knotted together and one big blob of mess. I think maybe those little threads were to keep the skein from tangling? Without a bit of exaggeration, I spent 6 freakin' hours just untangling and winding that one little skein into something that I could knit with. Plus I had to cut the wool twice. Hopefully you can make a join in lace knitting.
Okay, so on the plane on the way home from Mexico I will have nothing to do but cater to a man with no arms and to knit. I pack my knitting in my carry on. Airport security confiscates my needles. They are sharp - but not as sharp as the game stylus that the guy ahead of me gets to take with him. They are circular so they could be used to garrote another person. I look at her and she looks at me. I am tempted to say "Really? Do you see who I am? A terrorist on a charter flight to Regina? Do you know anything about knitters, they NEVER would give up their needles to a terrorist - they would die first." in my most sarcastic voice, but contain myself and get used to the idea of buying more needles when I get home. Murray loves when I get my knitting needles confiscated.
Finally get more needles once I am home again, which, I am peeved to notice, have been made in MEXICO. I start the cast on. This is great. My first lace shawl. I follow the directions until they say " complete rows 11 - 18 (the pattern stitches) following the chart until you have completed 122 rows". Well that seems simple enough. However, I like to sit in front of the TV when I knit and so I find myself not able to follow the chart as simply as I thought. At a commercial break I will find that I missed a row. I combined one row of the chart with another. I generally messed up so horribly that I have to rip the whole thing out and start over from stitch one. Seven or eight times!!
Now, I recall mentioning that "never giving up" can sometimes be equated with being "too stupid to know when to quit". So - I decide that somehow I must continue with this until I get it and you decide which of the two I am being (please don't feel the need to share with me your decision). I turn to a medium that I truly love. One that has never let me down. One that I can confidently pursue with clear and correct results. I create a spreadsheet in Excel. I generate a chart which shows which row corresponds with rows 11 - 18. For example, when I am on row 37, I know that I need to do row 15 on the chart. I put a smaller sidebar on my chart which says how many pattern stitches I should be working with on each row. So, I need to do 2 repeats of the pattern stitches on row 27, for example.
Things go much better now. I still will mess up and have one stitch more or less to deal with, but I have learned to STOP!! RIP THAT ONE ROW OUT CAREFULLY AND GET IT RIGHT BEFORE YOU GO ON!!! One stitch here or there is a big deal in knitting lace. Who knew?? Anyway the only bad thing now is that in order to rip out and get it right I have to put myself in absolute quiet seclusion. Like a jury. Or a monk. I must block out the calls of "Could you get me a drink", or "do we have any cheezies" and the like. No TV. No ipod. Just knit. Just get this one row right. Then, I can go on to a more normal life. Murray loves that I have taken up knitting lace >;)
I may never finish this shawl, but I know that I will never finish trying. The only time I quit trying to knit was during the game between Saskatchewan and Team Canada. Go Rink Holland!! Best of luck in Denmark!!
/bye
