What comes after one again?

I’ve not been very well since Christmas. We’re still trying to work out what exactly is going on, but two of the issues I have are fatigue and subsequent difficulty concentrating. The Shy Shawl (for lack of a better name it doesn’t have a Raa name yet), knit in NDS Angel 2 ply, has been more challenging than the one I knit in the heavier weight yarn. I thought, since this was my first venture into knitting with a lace weight yarn, that knitting a pattern I was familiar with would make life easier.. and I’m sure it has, however, I dread to think of the hell I’d be going through with a new pattern if this is *easier*.  I’m pretty OK when I’m not tired, I motor on, muttering to myself about ssks and yos , but tonight my last row went something like this:

“Ok, knit 3.. umm how many was that.. oh, one..ok 2 more. Knit 2 together, knit 2… oh, there’s only 1 stitch” *slowly unknits*  *counts from the start of the row* “What.. ah I dropped the yo” *picks up yo* *continues* knit 3.. umm how many was that.. oh, one..ok 2 more, knit 2 together, knit 2, yo…..” *continues* “umm, how many was that.. hang on where am I?” *pokes stitches* “Hmmm oh knit ummm… how many am I knitting?”

It seems I have lost the ability to count, and retain any information on the pattern.. time to put the knitting away.

Tomorrow will be busy, there’s some running around to be done and I have a visitor coming. Now though it’s time for Miss Raa to close her laptop and go to sleep.

Sweet dreams.

I was blind, but now I see..

So the lace knitting is.. ongoing.

I’ve had to rip it back due to various phone calls interrupting me midrow and me losing my place. I had started to see where some stitches were meant to go, so spotted errors fairly quickly when I made them. Then I had a break through, I wrote out the pattern repeat (bear in mind I have read it several times) and I *saw* the pattern. Saw what each stitch was there to do and its place in the pattern.

It’s like looking at a map in a strange city and suddenly knowing where you are.

What this means for me is that now, not only will I be able to see my mistakes more quickly but, I will also be able to work out how better to fix them without having to rip back rows and rows. I will *know* where I am now when anyone calls and, although I’m not good enough to be able to continue to knit and talk to them, I will know EXACTLY what to do next.

Luuuubs teh knitting!

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*

Going with the flow.

The front and back of the Fire and Brimstone are pinned out and blocking. Coffee was drunk, toast was eaten. I’m tired and sore now so it’s time to just sit and knit..and possibly time for painkillers.

I knit and blocked a swatch of the Heb yesterday, the gauge is pretty good (half a stitch out, which will only make a difference of about two and a half stitches across the back, and the rows were spot on).

The fuzziness of the yarn and the dark colour made it pretty hard to see the stitches to count, but I got there eventually.

The Katarina or as mine is called Kataranarina will be more of a jacket than a cardigan as the Heb has knit into quite a dense springy fabric. I do love the dark bitter chocolate colour of it though and the natural subtle variation of the undyed yarn is lovely.

For Once…

I’ve decided to be sensible.

I finished the back of the Garnet yesterday, and I just finished the front just now, although I have cast on the first sleeve, I have decided to put it down. I know I am too tired to concentrate, even over only 3 pattern repeats so I am ‘stepping away from the knitting’ . This will not only preserve my sanity but also stop my needles from ending up in splinters, or possibly even embeded in the cat after I throw them in frustration across the room having failed to count to 11* one too many times.

*I draw people’s attention to an occasion in Tor’s marking sweatshop  of DOOOM when I seemed convinced the numbers went 1..2..6…11 and then eventually started counting backwards…