Updates

Good news first! The shawl is going well so far. I am 10 rows into the lace edging and even though I had a minor freakout when I was 1 stitch off on the cast on, I seem to be on target now.

I have found that being PRECISELY on the stitch count at all times is a tall order for me. So what I've been doing is "reading" the knitting below to make sure all of the increases and decreases are in the in the right spots, and making up the extra stitches or lack thereof in the side panels, where it's less visible.

Maybe it won't be perfect, but it won't be a total mess. I also figured out, statistically speaking, that doing just ONE row with only a 1% margin of error would add up to having 3 stitches off. That's a lot; enough to throw off a pattern. And who expects to have 99% accuracy on all things?

*******
Now for the bad, the slippers were too small! After cramping up my hands doing that silly round-the-sole 3-needle bind off and felting for 2 hours and drying for a week, I put them on last night to find they were too short. They were also too short for my mom, whose feet are smaller than mine.

Fortunately, they found a new home with one of the ladies in Mom's workshop, who is completely impressed and wore them all afternoon during the workshop.