Good News/Bad News
Good news is, I received the extra yarn that the Rovings yarn company was kind enough to send me to complete my shawl. Regular readers may remember that I was working on a great shawl from this lovely yarn, and ended up running out with about 4 inches of edging to go. The yarn is sold in immense quantities so I was reluctant to buy a whole new ball, and then have a ton left over. I phoned the company seeking to purchase a smaller amount and the lady agreed to send me 75 yards and she wouldn't accept any payment for it. Talk about customer service! I highly recommend both the company AND the yarn.
And so, the good news is I will be completing the edging on my shawl tonight and wearing it home :-)
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And for the bad news. Just yesterday I commented that I was 10 rows into my green Lacey Lamb shawl and was having trouble keeping the right stitch count, but was adding in extra stitches in the plain side panels.
Apparently this plan did not work out as well as I expected. On each row, I was a few stitches off; between 1 and 4. On the next row, though, I'd be a completely unrelated number off. I'm not sure if I'm just THAT bad at counting or if I actually ended up misreading the chart somehow or what. I eventually got to a row where I was something like 7 stitches off, which is way too many. I tried to fudge it but just ended up dropping stitches, making a mess, and eventually just undoing the whole thing.
**********
Theory & Philosophy:
I guess my knitting personality just does not mesh well with lace. It requires extreme precision and I am just not a very precise person. I view knitting as a time to relax, enjoy TV or conversation with my husband. I like knitting I can do while sitting at the park watching geese. I enjoy the process of lace knitting, but it just seems that it requires more concentration and precision than I am willing to give.
I am not viewing this is a moral failing or a lack of patience that needs to be acquired somehow. I am viewing this is a reflection of personal limitations and an opportunity for growth. Rather than force myself into something I'm not enjoying, I'm going to work on patterns I do enjoy, that mesh with my life and my personality. If it requires monastery-like silence and keen concentration, I just don't enjoy working on it.
I really did enjoy working on the easy lace shawl I made from the Rovings wool. The beautiful handdyed variegation made it an ideal yarn for a simple pattern. Best of all, that pattern doesn't require absolute precision. Every 10 rows or so, you do an eyelet row. That row requires you have approximately the right number of stitches and in an either even or odd number, rather than an absolutely precise number. This is my kind of pattern :-)
I have also made another discovery. Many shawl knitters have told me they prefer working shawls from the top down; casting on a million tiny stitches and working progressively smaller rows. They say it is encouraging to have increasingly smaller numbers of stitches, rather than increasingly longer rows. I disagree! Casting on all of those stitches was a major pain in my butt, and working into those wonky little cast on stitches made the first row unpleasant to work as well. Also, I've found that when you only have a small number of stitches on the needles while you are getting your bearings on a chart, it is a simple thing to tink out a row that didn't go well, or, in the worst case scenario, it's less painful to rip out a little 1 inch triangle than a 6 foot long strip. (trust me on this one).
And so I think I will continue to work my shawls from the point up, and I will continue to seek out simpler patterns that I can enjoy knitting, and make use of all of those lovely hand dyed yarns out there!
And so, the good news is I will be completing the edging on my shawl tonight and wearing it home :-)
**********
And for the bad news. Just yesterday I commented that I was 10 rows into my green Lacey Lamb shawl and was having trouble keeping the right stitch count, but was adding in extra stitches in the plain side panels.
Apparently this plan did not work out as well as I expected. On each row, I was a few stitches off; between 1 and 4. On the next row, though, I'd be a completely unrelated number off. I'm not sure if I'm just THAT bad at counting or if I actually ended up misreading the chart somehow or what. I eventually got to a row where I was something like 7 stitches off, which is way too many. I tried to fudge it but just ended up dropping stitches, making a mess, and eventually just undoing the whole thing.
**********
Theory & Philosophy:
I guess my knitting personality just does not mesh well with lace. It requires extreme precision and I am just not a very precise person. I view knitting as a time to relax, enjoy TV or conversation with my husband. I like knitting I can do while sitting at the park watching geese. I enjoy the process of lace knitting, but it just seems that it requires more concentration and precision than I am willing to give.
I am not viewing this is a moral failing or a lack of patience that needs to be acquired somehow. I am viewing this is a reflection of personal limitations and an opportunity for growth. Rather than force myself into something I'm not enjoying, I'm going to work on patterns I do enjoy, that mesh with my life and my personality. If it requires monastery-like silence and keen concentration, I just don't enjoy working on it.
I really did enjoy working on the easy lace shawl I made from the Rovings wool. The beautiful handdyed variegation made it an ideal yarn for a simple pattern. Best of all, that pattern doesn't require absolute precision. Every 10 rows or so, you do an eyelet row. That row requires you have approximately the right number of stitches and in an either even or odd number, rather than an absolutely precise number. This is my kind of pattern :-)
I have also made another discovery. Many shawl knitters have told me they prefer working shawls from the top down; casting on a million tiny stitches and working progressively smaller rows. They say it is encouraging to have increasingly smaller numbers of stitches, rather than increasingly longer rows. I disagree! Casting on all of those stitches was a major pain in my butt, and working into those wonky little cast on stitches made the first row unpleasant to work as well. Also, I've found that when you only have a small number of stitches on the needles while you are getting your bearings on a chart, it is a simple thing to tink out a row that didn't go well, or, in the worst case scenario, it's less painful to rip out a little 1 inch triangle than a 6 foot long strip. (trust me on this one).
And so I think I will continue to work my shawls from the point up, and I will continue to seek out simpler patterns that I can enjoy knitting, and make use of all of those lovely hand dyed yarns out there!
posted by knittykat @ 9:09 AM
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