I had a really difficult time with the edging at first, not becuase it's hard (it's not), but just because I had this feeling that I was knitting out into space - it was bizarrely scary to knit out away from the main body of the stole. I had to redo the first row more times than was really reasonable. I cast on 24 stitches, counted, found I had only 23, cast on one more, counted again, and then purled back with more difficulty than I anticipated (I had forgotten how much more difficult the first couple of rows are because there is no weight to hold the stitches on the needle taut). Then, I started on the first chart row, got to the end, and discovered I had done something wrong, because I had too many stitches left over. I unpicked, recounted, and found that I had 23. Perplexed, I picked back, cast on one more stitch, did the whole thing again, and still had stitches left over. Really confused, I picked back again, counted stitches again, and again found that I had 23.
More confused than ever, I re-cast on that 24th stitch AGAIN, but this time as I purled back I actually thought about it and realized that having one stitch too few did not explain why I kept having too many stitches when I got to the end of the charted row. Then I realized that my eyes had just glazed past the s in the first box of the charted row. I was supposed to slip the first stitch, and that was why I had too many. I still don't know how I kept getting 23 stitches, but when I followed the directions properly, I got to the end of the row and everything was fine. After that, I really had no trouble.
When I completed the last row of the stole body, I rearranged my stitch markers so that I had one every 14 stitches, rather than every 10. I did this because the edging repeat is 14 rows (28, actually, but you only bind off a body stitch on the wrong side rows). That way I knew that if I got to the marker and I was not on the last repeat row, I had done something wrong. I didn't have any problems with this, but having the marker there did help me figure out which row I was on a couple of times when something distracted me and I forgot whether I had already moved my marker magnet or not.
After I took pictures I unpinned it and put it away. It seemed like tempting fate to try unpicking the cast-on just then. I have never worked with a provisional cast-on before so I decided it would be best to do it while well rested and not on a knitting high.
A new LYS has opened up right near the SO's appartment (so conveeeeeniant! I told him that the next time he puts his foot in his mouth to skip the flower shop and just pop into the yarn store). It's called With Yarn in Front and I don't think it has a website yet. It took me several tries to get there during open hours but I was very pleased. It's clean, organized, not too crowded (though this may change as they get more stock in - still, I really like the openness. I can't stand the crammed feeling of most yarn shops, where I can't turn around without fear of upsetting something), and the owner is very enthusiastic and helpful (almost too much so, but it is their first week or so, so I forgive). She proudly showed me what the shop had, including some milk yarn (so soft!) and corn yarn (feels like cotton). The prices were really nice, too.
The SO gamely went along with me and when I selected a skein of Jojoland Harmony laceweight (880 yards for 8 bucks - keep in mind, though, that it is actually finer than regular lace yarn, which I did not consider - even so, I think it's a good deal), he bought it for me! He is so sweet. I was intrigued by the color changes. I think I am going to try it out on the Knitspot pattern Elm Row. The colorway I got is called Harvest:
and I really wanted a fall-type pattern, but nothing too complicated that would be obscured with the colors. A leaf motif seems perfect. I'm really excited to see how it works up; it was all I could do not to ditch Scheherezade and cast on! However, it will take a little more thought than that, I think, because the yarn is finer weight than the pattern calls for, so I will have to (gasp) swatch and figure out how many pattern repeats I need to add to get a nice width. Then I'll just keep going until I run out. I have a feeling this may result in a short scarf, but if so, I'll live. In this weight it's definately an accent scarf rather than a warm scarf anyway. The suggested yarn is any laceweight that is about 400 yards per 50 grams. Harmony is 880 for 50 grams. It'll be a learning experience for me for sure - I am a little scared of ending up with a really oddly proportioned strip of knitting, but I am going to forge ahead and see what happens.
But, first things first - the other half of Scheherazade!
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