Unravelings

I've been sleeping pretty well lately, but the other night I woke up chewing on something that I was upset about and ended up coming downstairs for about an hour. I picked up the Pi Shawl I'd started the day before, found a mistake, and ended up unraveling the whole thing (I hadn't gotten very far anyway). It almost seemed that the act of unraveling that piece of knitting helped me unravel the problem I was having. I re-started the shawl and got myself back to the place where I had been, but with no mistakes just as I got completely over my upset and found myself ready to go back to sleep. As usual, as I unraveled the problem, I realized that there were other issues that were also bothering me, causing me to blow the issue I'd been chewing on in my semi-sleep out of proportion. As I unraveled the knitting, I also realized that I hadn't been happy with my original cast-on, and ended up being glad for the excuse to start over. Funny how often knitting mirrors my thought process.

Anyway, an hour with my knitting and the girls (our cats, Lydia and Pandora)gave me back my peace of mind and my sleep. My husband solved the presenting problem for me the next day and life goes on.

When I teach knitting, students are often horrified when they have to "frog" their knitting (for my non-knitting readers, that is the sound when you have to "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it" -- knitting joke). One of the local teachers is fondly known as Roberta the Ripper! I, however, rarely have an issue with frogging. I don't love it, but it does allow you to wipe out a mistake as if it never existed and replace it with something better (or at least more acceptable). Sometimes I do get mad at my knitting and have to put it away for a while before I can face frogging, but sometimes that act is just as healthy for my mental health as any new knitting can be.

OFF MY NEEDLES
I finished my snail mittens. Even though the first day of spring passed this week, it is still cold outside and I'm enjoying the mittens. The blue and yellow doesn't go with all of my jackets, so I may have to make another pair.

ON MY NEEDLES
I'm through the first skein of two for a prayer shawl I'm knitting for church. It is good easy knitting -- very calming.

I'm knitting a Japanese Vines scarf, from a pattern I found online and had to buy. I may have to make a few of these for gifts -- they are fun to knit and easy to carry along. Check out http://mimoknits.typepad.com/knitting/2007/09/japanese-vines.html

I'm also trying to knit the Bird in Hand mittens from Kate Gilbert, but the Cascade 220 yarn seems to be too big. I'd like to try some DK weight yarn, but may just put them aside for a while. A member of our knitting lunch group is trying to make them also and says they are way too much work for a pair of mittens. I think they'll be fine, but as the weather warms up, I'm not inspired to get serious about them.

What I am getting serious about is a lace shawl! I've been wanting to do one since starting to listen to the Knit Picks podcasts last summer. I used ILL to borrow Meg Swanson's A Gathering of Lace book and am working on the Shetland Tea Shawl in a mossy green Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks. The shawl is based on EZ's Pi Shawl instructions (Meg is EZ's daughter). I'm working on the first lace pattern section right now, getting ready for the next increase row which will take me from 150 stitches to 290 stitches. The next lace section is 48 rows,and then the number of stitches will double again as it just keeps getting bigger.

WHAT I'M READING
I've borrowed from the library A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt. It was a bit hard to get through at first, but I'm now finding it fascinating. Essentially, knitting is very old (older than crochet), but so little knitted fabric has survived, it is quite hard to really get a grip on how it came to be and when. Socks were probably the earliest items anyone knit.