I finally used up the rest of the magic ball of kidsilk haze sometime during the fifth repeat of the first chart. I have now started the sixth repeat. I don’t think I’ll need to add a repeat, which is nice. I’ll make a final decision in ten rows or so.
I would be a little bit farther on this project if I hadn’t made an error. This part of the shawl is mindless knitting, but there is mindless and then there is mindless. Here is a webcam shot (bad photography for the lazy) of the center of the shawl.
As you can see, there is a single knit stitch with a yarnover on each side. (The little red dot you can see is one of my beaded silver ring markers.) Unlike the other similar “lines” that radiate out from the center, there are no decreases that correspond to the yarnovers. That makes sense because those yarnovers (without decreases) are helping enlarge the shawl. Well, at some point last night I actually looked at my knitting and realized I had inadvertently performed a decrease after one of the yarnovers. About 10-12 rows earlier. My nice straight center line had taken an unexpected detour west.
In order to fix the problem, I had to let the center stitch, the yarnovers, and about three stitches on each side “run down” to the mishap. I then painstakingly laddered them back up with a small crochet hook, moving the center stitch back to where it was supposed to be in the first place. I say painstaking because kidsilk haze likes to stick to itself (because of the mohair) at the same time that it likes to slip and run (because of the silk).
It was a stupid mistake — easy to fix (although tiresome) without ripping back. However, if I had been paying attention I wouldn’t have had to worry about it at all.
This is a busy week for me — my son’s graduation from 8th grade is Friday. He’s been at the school since he was four! Even so, I hope to get to the lace border sometime this weekend. That’s the fun part and I’m looking forward to it.
This shawl is exquisite! the yarn is beautiful too! awesome job!
Comment by Mary Barghout — June 7, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
So so soft – it’s beautiful.
A belated thank you for the felted joining technique you told us about a few posts back. I used it last night on a little felted box I’m working on (from the Mason Dixon)– it’s a bit of a use up all my old Lamb’s Pride kinda thing — so I had a lot of joining to do. Felting the additions on worked very well. Now on to the washing machine.
I’ve almost completed my flower sweater. One sleeve in, one to go. I actually think it’s going to fit ok, although I wish I’d made it an inch or two longer. With my yarn shortage situation, however, it just wasn’t an option at the time.
Comment by Wendy in VA — June 8, 2006 @ 8:30 am