There and back again...and again...

So...if anyone was actually reading this blog when I said I was taking a laceweight project, my first genuine laceweight project, in fact, in the car to be my travel knitting...shame on you for not speaking up.

Issue 1: I am an idiot. 45+45 does NOT equal 99. I did the whole cast-on, a wrong side row, and got most of the way through row one before I realized that I was short. I got out the dental floss, put a lifeline through my cast-on row, pulled out the needles and ripped back to the cast on. I put all those stitches back on my needles, added nine, and made a mental note to review grade school math.

Issue 2: Using the sticki clip to put the chart on the dashboard and using a post-it note to mark my place, failed miserably. MISERABLY. OMG SO HARD.

Issue 3: Bumps. Bump, bump, bump. I had made it up through row 5 or so when I lost a stitch unnoticed, and rapidly concluded that I could not figure out how to get it back up, and since this shawl is knit from the center outward I feared it would be a rather prominent issue. I don't think I ripped out the whole thing, but I do think I ripped back to row, like, 2. sigh.

That was all on the trip down. I picked it back up for the 4 hr drive to Ashville and the Biltmore Estate (where I gleefully pointed out a knitting basket to my companions as we toured the maid's 'employee lounge') later in the week, this time with my KnitPicks Chart Keeper in my lap, using the long magnet to mark my row and the short ones to mark off blocks of 10 stitches at a time, which worked much, much better. Between the trip there and back and then the trip back home I almost finished chart 1. Just two rows to go!

Which brings us to last night AND...

Issue 4: I thought I remembered that I had stopped on row 47. but, I actually stopped at the end of row 47. Except, I was missing some stitches, so I undid the last 15 and redid them and that fixed it but...something was still wrong. gradually it dawned on me that when I did row 45, I did the last 15 stitches of row 47 instead of 45. AUGH. After some agony and indecision, I unpicked all of rows 47 and 46, and the last 15 stitches of 45 (after carefully checking to insure that I did, in fact, not screw up prior to those last 15 stitches), and then I redid the rest of row 45 and then I went to bed. I console myself with the fact that the yarn is still pretty and I am almost done with chart 1 (though to give you an idea of what I thought in my insanity was possible...I had prepared charts 1-4. you know. just in case).



Now that that trauma is over, check out my souvenir yarn:



Lacey Lamb by Jade Sapphire. So soft. I struggled hard to get that stupid color right and I think it is at least close. However the ball band covers the spot on the label that has the color marking so I can't tell you what it is.

I also got most of the sock I started at Sheep & Wool finished; it needs only a few more rows of toe, and I got the heel flap knitted on my SFS sock, but then I couldn't figure out how to turn the heel. I remember I used the directions in Sensational Knitted Socks last time because I got confused, but I didn't bring the book with me, so it had to wait until I got home.