All Fingers And Thumbs

I've been all fingers and thumbs with my knitting this week which is a bit strange because I have been knitting socks not gloves.

I started knitting a sock on Monday while I was in the I knit store, and continued with it while at the Stitch London gathering. It was progressing quite well, but it wasn't suitable for working on when I was watching television as it was quite a complicated pattern with a 12-row repeat.

In order to have something to work on while watching television I started working on a second sock. This was a much simpler pattern with only a 5-row pattern repeat and only one of those rows required much in the way of concentration. The sock grew quite nicely and I was approaching the heel when disaster struck. I inadvertently pulled a needle thinking it was the spare needle when in fact it was one of the needles with stitches on. I tried to pick up the stitches but it was impossible, so I ended up having to pull all the needles out and unpick the sock.

That all occurred early this morning; it was too early to get up but I had spent much of yesterday sleeping and I'd slept pretty well last night so I had decided to do a few rows of knitting until it was time to get up. Having had to give up on one sock, I picked up the other one to work on. Big mistake. Within five minutes I had dropped some stitches and again they were impossible to pick up so a second sock had to be unpicked.

This afternoon I started work on a different sock pattern. I have knitted the cuff of the sock and I'm progressing well on the leg. It is a pretty simple pattern and hasn't caused me any problems. So far. I shall continue with this sock this evening while I am watching television and if all goes well I may get near to turning the heel this evening. But I'll probably leave that part until tomorrow. I don't think that I could face any more mistakes today without it affecting my mood, which while not perfect is certainly better than it was a week or two ago.

Almost Back To Where Things Went Wrong

I have persevered with my knitting, although I admit there have been days where I haven't done any when perhaps I should have, and I am now almost back to where things went disastrously wrong. This time I have knitted the Shetland lace shawl on a slightly smaller needle and it seems to look a lot better and because its gauge is a little tighter the pattern seems to be neater and I have had fewer problems with stitches being dropped.

Getting it completed is becoming a bit of a race against time because the baby for whom it is being knitted is due in the next week or so. Even when I have finished the knitting I will still have to block the shawl to enhance its shape and to fix the pattern. Fortunately I invested in a blocking kit last year, which comprises a series of metal rods that allow the shawl to be stretched while it is barely damp so that it takes a nice shape which should remain with it forever.

Once the shawl has been blocked, it will need to be carefully wrapped and packaged ready for dispatch to the USA. Although the baby's parents are both Canadian, they are working at Duke University in North Carolina at present. The shawl won't arrive in time for the birth, but it should be there in plenty of time for the Christening.