Hail Madli, full of lace.
I was just commenting to Laura yesterday that the process of knitting lace could almost be like praying the rosary. In other words, the aspect of repetition gets you into a meditative state, and as you tick off the yo's, or rosary beads, your mind transcends the process and you open yourself up to inspiration.But then I started knitting Madli's Shawl, from Interweave Knits Summer 04.
Holy crap. I cannot get beyond the first row.
Let alone the fact that the cast-on has caused me more grief than a roomful of kindergarteners on the last day of school. You're supposed to double the yarn as you cast on, and y'all, it looks like I am seriously impaired in judging the length I need to double. Rip rip rip. Literally...it's knotted a couple of times so that I had to rip away the tangled mess. It broke my little ghetto knitter's heart.
Then I learned that I had to do a knitted cast on, instead of the longtail cast on I am used to doing. Rip.
Finally, last night, I cast on satisfactorily (I erred in doubling the length again, but at this point I didn't give a flying f*^&%$, I just wanted to start knitting). And then I ended up with four extra stitches at the end. Rip.
I counted my next cast on, and recounted. Counted the stitches in the chart, and they add up to 101, the required number of stitches to cast on.
Knit the first row again. Two stitches at the end.
Praying the rosary? I don't think it involves swearing like a sailor.
8 Comments:
Well there is a decade of the rosary called the sorrowful decade...
Oh no. :( That lace knitting is some crazy scary stuff. (Nevermind that I joined a lace kal - The Amazing Lace - if you are interested!) I'm sure this will be the hardest part and the rest will go smoothly and your shawl will look awesome!!
Oh I hear ya! I swatched for a lace scarf in whatever I had on hand and the pattern was lovely. I ordered the Cyrstal Palace Kid Merino that the pattern calls for (held double of course) and it took me 1 hour last night to get the first 4 rows (only a 4 row repeat-and half of those are straight purl) knitted. Hang in there. I went at it again this afternoon and thankfully it is going smoothly. I am praying.
Sheryl
Heh--your last sentence was EXACTLY what I thought in my head when I read your first paragraph. And then I was going to make the Sorrowful Mysteries crack, but Jennifer got there first. Dammit! How early does a lapsed Catholic have to get up to get the good jokes around here?
O. I am so with you, sister. I'd like to think that knitting lace is like praying the rosary (I am Catholic, so I know what you mean). But, for me, not so much. More like, standing next to a jackhammer. Or taking a standardized test. You know, fun and relaxing.
And you totally should join the Amazing Lace. C'mon! Do it!
I just tried knitting with KSH for the first time last week and had to rip *ahem--cut* a few yards out. Ack! I'm gonna give it another shot here soon. I'll wish us both luck. :)
Well, the first row is the hardest. After it's finished, all you have to do is figure out if the next row looks right next to the one before it.
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