Chugging along

I made huge progress on Scheherazade this weekend. I finished chart 3 and got through half of chart 4. I'm actually a little paranoid, because I haven't been giving my whole attention. I've found that I can read an e-book and work on the shawl at the same time. I did have one mess-up yesterday where I accidentally shifted the pattern ten stitches to one side - oops - but I caught it on the next row and tinked back to fix it. I have stitch markers set at every 10 stitches, and there is always at least one group of 10 that is nothing but knitting straight across, and of course all the wrong side rows are all purl. I am making sure to keep lifelines, though, just in case.

Chart 4 is the last chart with paisleys, and I am ready for a break from those. I don't know why they should bother me so much - it is sequences of decreases and yarnovers like everything else. I think it is just looking at the chart. I am tired of looking at paisleys. Charts 2, 3, and 4 (3 and 4 especially) look remarkably similar and it's hard to feel like I'm making progress. The next chart has diamonds. Diamonds will be different.

I am mindful that I will have to face this neverending stretch of paisleys one more time, but I hope I will have had enough of a break to be up for the challenge.

Due to an internet outage at work, I had to save this post and now I can add pictures.



I did, to my sorrow, find I had made a mistake while cruising along in my paisley madness. This is what a right-facing paisley is supposed to look like:



But, there is a problem with this one:



There is a break in the column of yarnovers on the left curve. I knit right past where I was supposed to decrease and yarnover on the left side, despite having gotten the right side yarnover in the correct space. I am a fool.

It's not too late to fix it. I could tink back, or drop a few stitches. But, I don't think I'm going to do that. Tinking back is right out. I'm not doing it. I'm really tempted to drop the stitches, but the thing is I'm not sure I could get it back and then I really would go bonkers. This is a tiny mistake when viewed in the context of the whole stole. The SO stared and stared at it when I told him there was something wrong with it but only after several incorrect guesses, a good look at the correct one, and another incorrect guess or two, did he finally hit on the correct answer. It will, of course be a little more obvious when blocked, but only another knitter would look close enough to notice, and I have a contingency plan should that happen. I will explain that this was my first shawl and that I was both overconfident, having made it so far, and seeing paisleys in my sleep, and that, after all, one mistake is not so bad and truly, in the end, I'm happy with it. Then I will wait until she is not looking, knock her over the head and hide the body somewhere clever.

I went to Capital Yarns yesterday, which I hadn't been to since they overhauled and updated their stock. I did feel like there was kind of a lot of novelty yarn, but they had some treasures too - Alpaca with a Twist and Baby Ull, for starters. Some nice mohair boucle and some great little gadgets. And I can't really complain too much about the novelty yarn, since that is what I was there to buy.

The SO's mom is an avid crafter but not really a knitter, but she stopped by a LYS near where she works out of curiosity. She bought me a Tilli Thomas bag kit, but not Tilli Thomas yarns to go with it - which is fine, I really like what she got, she bought me some Berroco Glace in a really nice color, and something called Souffle - but the problem is, she didn't get me enough! When I looked at the yarn requirements, I am way short. Unfortunately, I went to CY on a whim and didn't actually go home and check what I was short for. I was thinking I only needed another skein of Knit One Crochet too Souffle, and while I didn't find exactly the same thing, I found something that I thought would work just as well. Unforutnately I got home and found I was short of BOTH yarns - there was even less Glace than Souffle! Curses, foiled again!

The best solution would be to go back to the LYS that she went to and see if they have more of what I have (preferably in the same dye lot but in a purse I'm not picky - if they are different, it will just be a little more artistic - but I am not sure I remember what store it was (okay, some google detective work and I'm pretty sure it was Aylan's Woolgatherers). Maybe I can call them and see if they have more in stock. I can also go back and exchange it, I think, although that particular shop is a little difficult for me to get to. Ah well - I'll think of something.

It's been incredibly hot and I've had the airconditioner running in the house (it is too hot to go without, believe me - over 100 degrees some days) and while the rest of me was crazy hot, my feet kept getting cold. My starry night socks solved the problem. Knitting FTW! Speaking of socks, I finished the plain one that I started on the way to Maryland Sheep and Wool:



I'm sure I must have mentioned that as I finished it while I was on vacation, and the mate is now past the cuff and into the leg. Alone and bored in a hotel room while on travel for work, I decided to do an eye of partridge heel, just because I've never done one.



I'm delighted, it looks so nifty. I appologize for the crappy photos in this post. I don't know what my problem was, except maybe that I was rushing and I was using my 50 mm which really just isn't the best choice for these kinds of things. I had to stand on my tiptoes to get even as much of the stole in the photo as I got. I was disappointed, I'd hoped to show all of what I have so far. Oh well - next time I will take more time and do it properly.