Black Sheep

The Widow’s Shawl and the Frog

September 27th, 2004

AARRGGGG! I have a serious problem. I am a compulsive frogger.

I actually finished my shawl. Finished it! I cast off and everything. I had my brand new crochet hook ready to go (so I could crochet some edging on it). I tried it on and, while the fabric was really pretty, I realized that it was lopsided. I failed to increase 4 times everyother row. Instead, I increased 3 times every other row. So one half of this thing was longer than the other. I ended up frogging her. And I don’t have any pics because it was too depressing. All of those hours, lost. As I was unraveling it I was thinking about all of the things I was doing when I knitted it up. I knitted her for three hours on my drive back from picking up my husband and my stepdad from thier backpacking trip. I knitted her on the plane back from Spokane, for a couple of hours. I knitted her at the laundry mat while listening to re-runs of the Majority Report. The Willie Nelson episode. All of these hours and hours of knitting just unraveled before my eyes. But it had to be done. This yarn is very special and I couldn’t allow my mistake to keep it from becoming something potentially beautiful.

However, I think this is a good thing. The problem that I had with this shawl is that I followed the instructions for it too precisely. I didn’t like doing that. I wanted this to be my own. And I really wanted to incorporate lace into it. The pattern that I am using (from Spincraft), has an example in which you knit an inch of stockinette, then an inch of garter, then an inch of ribbing, etc. until you get to 23 inches. She suggests that you free form it and do your own thing. I didn’t do that and I felt so hack. The pattern has a nice, easy lace sequence that I really liked. So what I have decided to do for the second incarnation of Widow’s Shawl is knit in stockinette for about four inches and then do the lace sequence for about an inch, and then repeat. I think it will end up being really pretty and show off the pretty colors of the yarn.

I’ve already knitted about 5 inches. Only 20 or so to go! I’m using the Denise needles for it this time and I LOVE them. I am knitting faster with them. The bamboo made it difficult to knit with this yarn because they seemed to grab it too much.

I’ll try to get a substantial amount of her knitted and then take a picture of it soon.

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