The sanity saver worked and I managed to talk myself around to feeling like the Phoneix Rising shawl wasn't all that bad, I could manage it. I knit two rows per day on it (four counting the purl rows) pretty much every day this week up until Friday. I even got far enough to switch the shawl to a longer circ, so I could get some pictures (actually, I hit that point pretty early in the week, so these pictures show only a couple of rows into the first repeat).
As of Thursday, my plan was to finish two more rows on Friday, which would put me through with the first repeat of the edging chart, and then to spend Saturday getting through a second repeat. Then I would take Sunday off and knit through another couple of repeats on the Bluebird shawl, both so I would have progress to show on the Ravelry group and to keep me from going stark raving mad.
However, when I left work on Friday I could barely keep my eyes open. I was so tired I couldn't stand it. Naturally I didn't go home and take a nap because that would have made sense. Instead I went home, put something inane on the television for background noise, and picked up some simple knitting in the form of my Esplanade hat, and got out my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I was re-reading, thinking I would knit and read until I felt like I could doze.
Some people give me weird looks at the combination of these three things, but the simple reality is, the TV is always on in my house. I find it comforting, and it drowns out any little noises from my brother's part of the house. He lives in the basement and my living room is right above his living room, and I find the noise of the TV less distracting than whatever he's doing down there. Especially if what he's doing involves his own TV and the untimely demise of numerous zombies. So the TV is on, but it's not really a factor in what I'm doing. Or at least it wasn't, until I turned on the Caps game just after the Thrasher's goalie passed out on the ice. But I digress.
Anyway, I knit and I read for pretty much the whole evening, and when I went to bed the hat was ready to start the decreases, which consoled me for lack of progress on the Phoenix shawl. I also finished Deathly Hallows (that book was a lot better when you weren't completely on edge wishing you could just finish it already so you can find out what happens. I might have to read Half-Blood Prince again and see if it also improves when not under duress) and got out my Kindle, on which I've been reading The Perfect Storm.
Saturday the plan was that I would knit until lunch, and then the SO and I would go have a nice lunch together at our usual place, and then we would come home and I would knit until we went to meet up with his parents for dinner. They've been working out in Yellowstone for the past few months and they just got back, so we haven't seen them since April.
This plan was foiled by a community fair that was going on right smack in the middle of where we were going to lunch, and by the time we figured out we couldn't get where we wanted to go, we were closer to the parents' place than to mine, and there were no good places to eat where we were, so we just gave up and went on over. This gave us significantly more time for chatting and catching up, but completely washed out any chance of making Phoenix progress. I worked on the sock I had in my purse instead, and made quite a lot of progress.
This presented me with a dilemma on Sunday. The sock needed only the toe and the hat needed only the decrease rows. With two projects so close to completion - well. I sighed and put the Phoenix shawl aside.
At least I have a pair of socks and a hat for my time, and I finished The Perfect Storm. Truth be told, I immediately cast on for another Esplanade, in the reverse colors. I just think the reverse brim is so clever. Here's the finished hat inside out so you can see.
I let Ella try it on, since she showed a teeny bit of interest.
She was not impressed and went back to sleep.
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