10 things

I have learned in the last few days

1. How to do a nice crocheted provisional cast on.
2. That lace doesn’t need to be scary.
3. Knitting lace and watching tv do not mix a) you mess up the knitting b) whilst fixing the mess you made of the knitting you miss a huge chunk of the programme you are watching.
4. Attempting to knit lace after a long day, on 4 hours sleep, is a slightly surreal experience.
5. It’s amazing how creative your language can get whilst attempting to knit lace after a long day on 4 hours sleep…
6. You never knew that cat could look like she was asking for ear plugs just by twitching her ears at you like that.
7. The cat gets pointy when you wake her up looking for the stitch markers she is lying on.
8. She also gets pointy when you try to move her off your yarn.
9. And when you try to stop her playing with the ends of your lifeline.
10. Using an autumnal coloured yarn comes in handy for hiding the bloodstains from the scratches you have on your hands after the cat has been pointy that many times.

I may have more to add later

WordPress ate my post

I need to go back and rewrite.

boooooooooo!

Lace & Concentration.

Sometimes when we’re stressed or worried about something, we choose to knit something simple. After the fire, I put away chevrons, lace edging, and knitting that needed any thought at all. I needed *mindless* stocking and garter. I chose a pattern I could pick up and put down easily, something that let me just slip off in to the meditation of knitting. Therapy.

Lately, in my current *stress*, I tried mindless. I started new projects of much stocking stitch, only to find that they weren’t lulling me , and making me feel relaxed. The garter stitch scarf was a nice way to pass a day, but I was impatient for it to be finished. To be perfectly honest these projects let me think too much. I needed harder knitting.

Last night as I was fidgeting my way round the laptop folders, I found a pdf I didn’t recognise. Unless the cat has been downloading things, it *must* be mine.. thing is it’s a lace shawl… *has the fear*. I remember the agony of trying to get a lowly lace border knitted on the Emeralds & Garnets. Having discovered the horror of what the pdf contained, and having had a lie down in a darkened room and some hot sweet tea to soothe my nerves, I had a look at it again (through hands over my eyes) and amazingly, I didn’t have to take a tranquilizer, not even a beta blocker. I found myself reading the pattern and thinking “that doesn’t look too bad”.

I resisted the urge to call the men in the white coats, instead I picked up some needles and yarn, I YouTubed a provisional cast on and I started knitting. I am ashamed, and somewhat terrified, to admit I liked it. My head was too full of Yarn Overs, SKPs and K2togs to think about anything else.

I think the cat was pretty shocked at the swearing and shouting. I unknit, I reknit, I cursed, I called upon the Knitting Gods to intervene and, at 3am, when I was just about to cry and throw my knitting against the wall, I finished my row and I had the right number of stitches, not only that, they all seem to be in the right places. A Knitting Miracle had occurred! Not only that but it continued, I knit another 4 rows and STILL had the right number and they still seemed to be in the right places. I had overcome my Lace Knitting Phobia!

I guess I should share the pattern… it’s the Kiri shawl by  Polly Outhwaite at All Tangled Up. I decided to knit it in my Manos Silk Blend as that was what I had to hand and the Leo colourway is nicely autumnal for a leaf pattern.

*liked the post the interwebs ate better than this one*