Knitting Through Frustration and Regaining Confidence

Newborn Baby Sweater on Lost In Time Shawl

Yesterday as I was working on my shawl, I felt the urge to frog the whole project. I was consistently having trouble with the stitch count, and realized that it was just going to get worse. With a triangular shawl, it  keeps growing and growing. The further you go, the more stitches you have.  I had just backtracked six rows to fix a loop near a stitch marker. It took me hours.

I realized that the stitch markers that I was using were causing me trouble. They had little charms dangling from them. Although they were adorable, they were getting caught on the yarn overs. The locking stitch markers had a tendency to stretch the cotton/acrylic yarn. This created more loops. I replaced them with some tiny, simple markers that I had in my notions. They were given to me with a bag of baby yarn. They work perfectly. Another Godsend. I have been so fortunate with all the knitting supplies that have flown into my life. This tote bag used to belong to my mom. She loved her Yorkies. I knit her all kinds of things when she was alive.

I had a revelation as I was putting back all 280 stitches on the needles. I should have used life lines! I had forgotten all about them. They really save a lot of time and heartache when knitting lace. Although this is a fairly simple pattern, I find that anything with yarn overs can cause me to get upset if I have to rip out a row or two. I threaded a lifeline through a row of stockinette stitch, and feel much better now.

I got several rows done today, and am feeling much more positive about completing this project. I discovered  that I also need to count out loud, or to myself. I can't work on this one with company or in a knitting group. I invariably make a tiny mistake, and get mixed up when I try to recount. If I do it in solitude, I'm fine.

I found a simple project on Martha Stewart's website that I plan to start tomorrow. It's a knit bag that looks perfect for some dark grey alpaca yarn that I have. It was given to me by my ballet teacher from childhood. I expected it to be ultra soft, but it feels more like scratchy wool. It's beautiful, and hand spun. She made a shrug with it, but it didn't fit. She packed it up for me and suggested that  I make something with it for myself. It's from her sister's alpacas. I was trying to find the perfect project for it, and I think this might be it. I knitted three swatches to make it work. It turns out I can use my size 11 needles and use more stitches to make the measurements work. Since it's just two rectangles, it won't matter that my calculations are different. This yarn is hand spun, and it looked too lacey on the size 15 needles that Martha's pattern suggested. Actually, I only have size 13 needles, but it looked way too big on those. I think they must mean ultra bulky yarn, rather than bulky. I have size 11 needles already, and I really don't want to have to buy any more knitting needles.

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