Once I finished the blanket, I picked up the Mt Tam Mitts that have been patiently wating for me. I would bring them to knit night to work on since, well.. the blanket was not portable. When I had last touched them, one was ready to start the thumb gusset, adn the other had the gusset in the making. This was the first time I had ever done a mitten/mitt/glove/whathaveyou, so I did not actually realize how long the gusset would be and how much yarn it would require. I actually thought it would be pretty short, so I used more yarn than I should have getting the main part of the mitt with the pattern knit before even starting the gusset part. On the first mitt, I managed to get a couple of rows past getting the gusset on scrap yarn before running out of yarn, but on the second one, I was maybe 3 or 4 rows short of getting the gusset onto scrap yarn before running out. I only need half a ball of yarn and maybe 30 minutes and both these beauties will be ready to be washed, blocked and worn. Even though it seems like they took forever because I was not constantly knitting them, they were very fast. Both main sections could be completed in one day, and both gussets (assuming I had enough yarn!) could be completed in another day.
My new project is, as I suggested in my last Stitches post, a lace project. I have decided to work on the Shoalwater Shawl from Fiber Trends. This was a pattern that I bought when I have *just* learned how to knit. After buying it thinking how cool it looked, I opened the insert and thought "what???". At that time I did not know how to read charts, and probably didn't know some of the stitches that I am using. Every time I started a new project since then, I have thought of this pattern, and how I was *eventually* going to work on it. So, why not now? Lace seems to be one of those things like socks, steeks, and short rows, that people are scared of doing. When talking about lace it is a gasp and a whisper because oh, it is so lovely but (in the whisper) it's so hard! If there is one thing about knitting that I don't understand, it is the fear of something new. I looked over the instructions before starting, checked out the charts (which now make *perfect* sense), and thought "awesome! bring it on". To me, lace is not that hard. It requires that you pay attention to what you're doing, stopping every now and then to make sure you have the right number of stitches, and just being careful in general. I also learned rather quickly that stitch markers and life lines are a necessity, luckily, a lesson not learned the hard way. I have not had to rip back to a lifeline far away ::spits through fingers:: and have finally found an appreciation for those dangly stitch markers I had randomly obtained from different places. For most things, I found the danglies to get in the way, but here I actually like the danglies better than the plain little stitch markers of which I ahve more than I know what to do with. I currently have 5 dangly markers and all of them are in use. In a few rows, I am going to end up needing more. I might be making a trip to the etsy stores before too long.
I am almost at the end of the second chart, and it is going so smoothly. If there is any knitting that I have done that was soothing and relaxing, this is it. The only thing I could see being a problem with this particular piece is that the yarn I am using most probably will not block. So unlike most lace knitting, what I see when this comes off the needles is what I will get. There will be no blooming and stretch. But hopefully in spite of all this it will still look fantastic.
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