Yarnlove

My progress on the vest has been filled with ups and downs, mostly due to my own negligence. Last night I had a major down, and I started another project while my blood pressure slowly dropped. Since I am the long tall Sally of any crowd, I added a few extra rows to make sure the vest covers my middle. I have consistently adjusted the pattern repeat to my own increases and decreases, but since I think I'm such an excellent knitter I don't really think too much about it, and when I had six (6) rows until bind off I found that the only thing I hadn't adjusted was the neckline, who was still on the same latitude as before, giving my deep V vest a deep U in the back. I tossed the vest far far away and cast on a lace shawl instead, which is surprisingly fun to knit. I'm only on row 16 or something, but I like it so far. Hopefully I will be calm enough to frog two inches of the vest this weekend, and then FINALLY cut my steeks, which is the major goal of this project.

Also, I had a gauge crisis the other night. I found that I didn't have 30 rows/10 cm, but 21. I had a chill to the bone, then discovered that if I stretch it to gauge stitchwise, I will also get gauge rowwise. Oh, the constant excitement of knitting, and oh, the benefits of careful blocking!

But let's go back to the lace part, shall we? I have wound a skein from one of my two hanks of 1-ply burgundy wool and cast on the Frost flowers and leaves shawl (anything Eunny knits I can knit too), true to my habit not to read the instructions too carefully. I discovered this morning on the train that there is something called "circular beginning" and "invisible cast-on". Sorry, I'm on row 16, it's not gonna happen. I just cast on as usual, long-tail, and then had fifteen troublesome minutes with the even distribution on four DPN's, knitting two rows and then start working the chart. After two attempts I distributed the eight stitches evenly on two DPN's, knitted the two rows and then transferred them on to two more needles. Much easier to handle. With two stitches on each needle I couldn't even tell what order they were in.