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.

Starting From Scratch

A couple of months ago I started to knit a beautiful Shetland lace shawl and I wrote several posts about the trouble that I was having with the pattern.  I kept making mistakes and then not being able to correct them so each time I was having to unpick the knitting and start again.  I put it aside for a while and started knitting other things in the hope that when I went back to it I would have more luck.  

Fortunately, when I went back to it again I was more successful and I managed to complete the centre section of the shawl with its traditional rosebud pattern.   After this was completed I had to pick up stitches along the four sides of the centre panel and then start knitting the delicate lace borders.  All of this was before Christmas and I carried on knitting with the rounds gradually increasing in the number of stitches that they contained as I progressed.  Some time between Christmas and New Year I made a mistake which led to a stitch being dropped and it travelling down several rows.  Normally, this would not cause me a problem to pick up and work back to make the pattern correct, but because this is such a lacy pattern and no two rows are the same, I wasn't able to correct the mistake without unpicking the knitting stitch by stitch back to where I had managed to catch the dropped stitch.  I started the laborious task of the unpicking and then I had the terrible drop in my mood which hit rock bottom last weekend and knitting (although in this case perhaps unknitting would be a better description of what was happening) was not something that I could contemplate.

This afternoon I decided that I would go back to the shawl and try to sort out the mistake.  It didn't work.  As I was unpicking the shawl one stitch at a time, although with the combination of stitches knitted together and extra stitches created as part of the pattern, unpicking stitch by stitch is a bit of a misnomer.  I was progressing well until I dropped more stitches, and this time there was nothing that I could do but pull the needle out of the knitting and unpick the lot.

So this afternoon I have started to knit the shawl all over again.  I guess that it shows how much I care for the person who I am knitting this for that I have not given up and decided not to bother.  This time I am going to be careful; this time I hope that there are no irrecoverable errors.  And when it is finished, I will post a picture of it here so that you know that I have not been beaten by some needles and some wool. 

Just Another Weekend

After a very difficult Thursday, and my normal Friday morning anxiety over my psychotherapy session, I have made it to the weekend.  As far as the TV companies are concerned the holiday period has started and we are being treated to lots of films, so I shall have to see what is coming up over the next few days and decide what I am going to watch and what I shall record for future consumption.

I don't have much to do over the next few days.  Monday morning will see me making a visit to see my GP.  It is just my normal monthly appointment so that he can see how I am and check my blood pressure and mood.  Then it will be a quick dash to the Post Office to post a small package by special delivery.  Tuesday I will get the last bits of shopping for Christmas.  I don't need very much, just some fresh fruit and vegetables, a bottle of wine to have with my Christmas dinner, and possibly a little treat for myself.

I know that Christmas isn't going to be a very special day for me; there won't be any presents or a traditional Christmas dinner, but I think that I can get through it okay.  I am treating this next week or so as just an ordinary period.  I am not thinking about it being Christmas; Thursday will be just like any other day which will just have some rather different television programmes to watch.  My viewing will include Doctor Who, and the new Wallace and Gromit offering.

I have spent the last few evenings working on the Shetland lace shawl, and after having decided to knit it in a different yarn it has progressed very well.  I have managed to finish the centre square with its rosebud pattern and have now picked up the stitches around the central panel and started to knit the border pattern. There are 92 rows to knit before I start the lacy edging; so far I have completed six rows.  Not many perhaps, but it is a start and fortunately although it looks very complicated when you look at the photographs of the finished pattern, it is actually quite an easy pattern to follow (it is knitted using a couple of charts to make it easier) and I am hoping that there will not be too many problems as the rows progress.

It will be time to pop my lunch in the microwave in a minute (home-made vegetable biryani) and then I can spend the afternoon knitting and half-watching a progression of films.  It may not be very exciting, but at least I can cope with it.

What Is A Shetland Hap Shawl?

I have written several times over the last few weeks about the Shetland hap shawl that I am making, and it has brought about several comments asking what a Shetland hap shawl is. So I thought the best way to answer this was to write a post about it. I have been knitting lace shawls for some months now and the owner of the website that I had been buying my wool from told me of another site that specialized in Shetland lace shawls. This site is Heirloom Knitting and is a source of lots of information about Shetland lace knitting as well as being a source of supplies and patterns for some truly delightful shawls.

Shetland lace knitted shawls are justifiably famous for their intricate designs and fineness. Perhaps the best known are the Shetland lace ring shawls which are so fine that they will pass through a wedding ring. The production of these incredible shawls was a cottage industry during Victorian times and the finest London stores were supplied with these hand-made shawls for sale to the high and the mighty.

But these shawls were not suitable for everyday use by the Shetland women themselves so they produced shawls made of thicker wool and in dark colours for their own use. These were known as hap shawls and in addition to being thicker and darker then the fine shawls that went for sale, the patterns in them were far less intricate. Hap is a medieval word meaning a cover or to wrap up, and that is what these shawls were for. They were used by the Shetland women to wrap themselves in for warmth. I've included a picture below of the shawl that I am knitting.

I hope that this answers the questions that you have been asking. A trip to the Heirloom Knitting website will give you far more information.

Feeling A Little Better

I'm feeling a little better today; much better than I was feeling on Friday.  I haven't managed to start studying again, but I have planned things for the rest of the week, and I shall be getting back to the books tomorrow morning.  Fortunately, I am still well ahead of things on one of my courses, and this means that I can spend all my time working on the other one, at least for the rest of this week.

The weather has turned so cold over the last couple of days and I am having to make sure that I keep well wrapped up as feeling the way that I do I could quite easily fall prey to any bug that is going around.  The conjunctivitis seems to be almost better; my vision has returned to normal and it is only while I am asleep that my eyes get gummed up, but it is reasonably easy to get them cleaned when I have a wash when I get up.

I have watched lots of films over the weekend and done quite a bit of knitting.  I have left the Shetland lace shawl for the time being as I don't think that I could face it if I made a mistake and end up having to unpick some of it.  Instead I have been knitting myself another jumper; just a plain one this time, knitted in bright red aran wool.  It should be another winter warmer when it is complete.  I have also been knitting another shawl.  This is a Shetland hap shawl; hap is a mediaeval word meaning a cover, or to wrap snuggly, and these shawls were one of the commonest items of knitting that Shetland women made for themselves.  They were everyday items and were usually made in thicker, darker wools than those used for Shetland lace shawls meant for export. My shawl is being made in shades of grey and is a very simple pattern in comparison to that for the baby's shawl.

Tomorrow I will be contacting the hospital to see if they can find out for me whether or not I have a psychotherapy session on Friday.  I have no intention of making another trip to the hospital only to find that the journey has been wasted.  This is the longest break that I have had between sessions since I started in May, and all other breaks have been known about well in advance.  It is the lack of notice that has caused me the anguish over the last few weeks and is what I need to talk about with my psychotherapist.  So let's hope they have good news for me and I can start on the therapy path again.

Panic Over

It took me a while, but I managed to unpick my knitting stitch by stitch, row by row, until I got back to a spot where I had the right number of stitches on the needle and then knit a few rows to get me to the point where I had noticed the error. So I can carry on with the knitting and still hopefully finish the centre panel over the weekend.

I have mentioned before that I started knitting lace shawls about 18 months ago and while most patterns have not caused me any significant problems, one took a number of attempts before I managed to complete the shawl. Since that time I have knitted two other shawls to that pattern without too much of a problem. However, when I was knitting it for the first time I would become depressed for days each time I had to unpick the shawl and start again. At one point I thought that I would never be able to master the pattern.

It is yet another indicator of how much better I am becoming, that even though I have had significant problems with this Shetland lace shawl, I have not got to the stage that I thought I would have to give it up and admit defeat. Through all the problems that I have had with this pattern, I have kept telling myself that knitting consists of just two basic stitches with slight variations to how those two stitches are arranged that creates the pattern. As the centre section is knitted backwards and forwards on the needles (or one needle in my case as I am using a circular needle throughout) I have only been using one of those stitches, and variations of it, so far.

I won't be getting very much knitting done today as I have a busy schedule of other activities and will be out of the house much of the day. But as I complete each pattern repeat I seem to be gaining confidence that I can knit this shawl. It is the kind of item, that in this increasingly throwaway world, can become a family heirloom, and I hope that Kelly and her family can use it for many years to come. Some Shetland lace shawls have survived for more than one hundred years, and the thought that something I have made may still be around and being used long after I am gone means that perhaps I can leave something for future generations.

I Tempted Fate

I'm afraid that I made a big mistake in writing and publishing my last post.  Talk about tempting fate.  Everything had been going well with the knitting and I was looking forward to finishing the fifth pattern repeat, but as I approached the end of the 11th row of the pattern I realised that I was a stitch short.  I did a quick count of stitches and there were only 116 when I should have had 117. The problem was that I couldn't determine where the mistake had been made so I had to start unpicking the row one stitch at a time. When I had done that I counted again and I was even more adrift. Somewhere along that row I had dropped another stitch so another row had to be undone, and then another.  I am half way along that row now and I have decided to take a break for a few minutes to regain my composure.  I hope that when I have undone this row I should have the right number of stitches on the needle, or be able to see where the mistake is so that I can correct it and carry on again. 

I can't help thinking that if I hadn't stopped knitting to take a picture of what I had completed so far and then written that post, the error may never have occurred.  It is enough to make you cry; I haven't quite got to that stage yet although if I can't find the error tonight I am going to have to put the shawl aside and do something a little easier for the rest of the evening.  Sometimes I wonder why I chose to knit this shawl in the first place.

Progress On The Shetland Lace Shawl

I know that it doesn't look like much at the moment but the lace shawl is starting to grow.  I have now completed four repeats of the 'rosebud' pattern and I am well on my way to completing the fifth.  This is a close up of the centre panel as it stands at the moment and after so many false starts I seem to be able to follow the pattern quite easily and to have got used to the fineness of the yarn, so consequently I am having fewer problems with dropped stitches.

The panel is sort of scrunched up at the moment because that is the way that it knits up, but once the shawl is completed it has to be soaked in warm water, then rolled in a towel to remove as much moisture as possible before blocking it out with wires to its final size and left to dry.  This means that the yarn gets stretched a little and then shrinks a little as it dries so that it stops scrunching up on itself and the patterns on the shawl become clearer.

I am hoping that I will have the centre square panel completed at the weekend and then I will begin the mammoth task of picking up stitches from the three worked edges before starting on the diamond panel border and the intricate lacy edging.  

Maybe I Should Build An Ark

If I wasn't already feeling a bit low, today's weather would have taken care of it.  It's lunchtime, and so dark that I am going to have to put a light on so that I can see what I am doing.  But not only is it dark, the rain is pouring down at such a rate that I am wondering whether an ark may be necessary.

The little freezer attached to the fridge is empty of everything except some vegetables, so I need to go out to the large freezer in the garage to get some things for meals for the next few days.  However, I have no intention of getting myself soaked in the short dash from the back door to the garage, so I shall have to make do with some soup for lunch and hope that the rain eases a little later on.

My depression is not normally affected by the weather, but we have had such grim weather this year that the wind and the rain that we have at the moment is like the straw that broke the camel's back.  Try as I might, it is exceedingly difficult to see that things will get better when the day is so dark and dull.

One slightly lighter note to this post is possible.  I have been doing some knitting this morning and I have managed to move into virgin territory with the knitting.  I have managed to complete one and a half repeats of the 'rosebud' pattern on the Shetland lace shawl.  Perhaps I am getting used to the yarn and as a result managing to cope with the pattern a little more easily.  Anyway, the odd mistakes that I have made this morning have been easily rectified so I am a little more confident in my ability to make this shawl.  I hope that having written that I don't make a monumental mistake in the next few rows and cause me to lose confidence again.

Just In Case You Wondered

Yes, I have been a bit quiet about the Shetland lace shawl for the last few days, and there is a very good reason for that.  I have started it, and had to unpick it again, seven times so far.  The best that I have managed so far is to cast on the required stitches, complete the four rows of garter stitch and then complete 14 rows of the 20-row repeat that forms the 'rosebud' pattern at the centre of the shawl.  My best attempt came to grief about half way through row 15 of the pattern when I made a mistake and then while attempting to correct it managed to drop some stitches that were impossible to pick up again.

It's not that I am a bad knitter; I rarely, if ever, drop stitches normally.  The problem that I am having here is caused by the fineness of the wool that I am using.  I know that they say that a bad workman blames his tools, but in this case it really is the yarn at fault.  I am starting to get used to it now, and I am working on my eighth attempt at the moment.  I have just completed row 14 of the 'rosebud' pattern and will shortly be entering new territory. I am determined that this time I will not make a mistake and I will be a little more careful if I have to unpick anything to try to ensure that I don't drop stitches.

The fact that I had so many problems with the shawl meant that my other knitting, instead of being a stand-by, became the main thing that I was working on.  The result of this is that I now have a new jumper and a cardigan, both in the same yarn.  The cardigan is the garment that I got for free because the yarn was so economical.

So, I will sit down with the pattern, I shall take up the knitting, and I will start row 15 in the hopes that this will be the last time that I have to start on the shawl and that I can get to work on it every evening so that it grows at a good rate.  If I'm having this much trouble with the centre of the shawl, I hate to think what will happen when I get to the lacy borders.  It might just turn out to be my biggest nightmare ever.  We'll have to wait and see what happens. 

Knitting - A Quick Update

The news is not good.  I have now started and unpicked the shawl five times: I still haven't got past the stage of Row 11 of the 'rosebud' pattern. I've been there twice now, but most of my problems seem to be actually getting the right number of stitches on the needle in the first place (needle is not a typo, I'm using a circular needle) and then getting the first row of the 'rosebud' pattern correct.  So I eventually gave up trying for the day and settled down to work on my red jumper.

The news here is a little better.  I have finished knitting the polo collar and all that remains as far as knitting is concerned is the button and buttonhole bands on the collar to have their stitches picked up and knit and then it is just a case of finishing the sewing together, the addition of the requisite number of buttons and another jumper is ready for wearing.

I didn't use the wool specified in the pattern, and the yarn that I bought has turned out to be far more economical so I should have enough to knit a plain round-necked jumper; this means that I will have been able to make two jumpers for the price of one. 

I suppose you could call it a 'buy one, get one free' jumper.

Things Aren't Going So Well

Pretty much everything has been going well over the last couple of weeks.  I've been getting on with my studying, and I'm ahead of the drag curve on both courses, so I have been feeling rather proud of myself.  The last couple of psychotherapy sessions have gone well and I can start to see some benefit from it.  I've knitted two jumpers and a hat, and I am fairly close to finishing my third jumper; it was chunky wool knitted on large needles so it grew quickly.  Sleep is the thing that has been a bit of a problem, but I have survived that and I'm generally feeling better than I have for a long time.

So, why I am saying that things aren't going so well?  I started work on the Shetland lace shawl last night and I have so far started it, knitted the four rows of garter stitch and then 10 rows of the 'rosebud' pattern only to make a mistake on the 11th and drop a stitch, which it was impossible to pick up again.  The only thing to do was to unpick all that I had done and start again; I did.  This time I managed to get to the fifth row of the first 'rosebud' pattern before making a mistake, and as I attempted to unpick the stitches to try to correct it, a dropped stitch again caused havoc and the shawl was again unpicked.

Later on this morning, when I have had some breakfast, done my chores, been out to buy some bread and milk, and made sure that I am in a reasonable frame of mind, I will start the shawl for the third time.  You know what they say about 'third time lucky'.  I'm hoping that they are right and this will be the time where things go well and I am able to follow the pattern and count the stitches properly and progress with the shawl's centre.  What is making this so difficult when it comes to dropped stitches is that the yarn is extremely fine, more like sewing cotton than knitting wool, and it is very difficult to both unpick stitches and to catch stitches when you have dropped them.

One of the things that knitting lace shawls over the last 18 months has taught me is that it is possible to get there in the end.  One shawl pattern that I have was knitted and unpicked, knitted and unpicked, then knitted again so many times before I finally managed to master the pattern and complete the shawl.  It was all worthwhile because the finished article is beautiful and I have since knitted the pattern again without any trouble at all.  I know that if I just take my time and don't try to rush things, I will master the pattern for this shawl and that once I have got the first pattern repeat out of the way it will all become much easier.

In other words, all I have to do is PERSEVERE.

A Dream Of A Shawl

Writing about the things that I am knitting, have just knitted, or am about to knit, seem to have formed a significant part of recent posts to this blog. It has surprised me how much interest in the form of comments that these posts have attracted. Midwife asked me if I had a picture of the shawl that I am about to knit. So here are a couple of pictures for everyone to see what I have let myself in for. The first picture shows the pattern that will form the central square of the shawl; it is called rosebuds and is knitted backwards and forwards as would be normal with a piece of knitting. The second picture shows the border which comprises three sets of diamonds each filled with a different pattern. There are two ways in which this border can be knitted. For the less experienced knitter it is suggested that you knit the border in four parts, working from each side of the central square in turn. However, for the experienced knitter, instructions are given for knitting the border in the round, that is on a circular needle. Once this beautiful border has been completed, a lacy edging is then knitted to finish off the design.



Apparently the shawl can be knitted in about 600 hours, but I am not going to be keeping a count. It will just be sufficient for me to complete it without too many mistakes along the way. So this gives you a bit of an idea of what the shawl will look like, but there is nothing like looking at the real thing, so as I said before, I will include photographs of the shawl as it progresses.

Something For The Cold Weather

One of the things that I noticed with the change to very cold weather last week was that I seem to feel the cold so much more than I have in the past.  I don't think I have worn a proper pair of shoes for more than a year, and the only time I wear trainers is when I am working in the garden; I have been wearing sandals all the time and I haven't really felt the cold in my feet. However, last week I noticed that I had cold feet in bed, and that is something that I hadn't noticed for years, so it was popsocks and shoes when I went for psychotherapy on Friday instead of sandals.

While my body and feet were taken care of, I noticed that my ears were freezing and it was then that I determined that I would knit myself a hat, hence the purchase of wool for a hat and mittens on Friday after psychotherapy.  I finished the hat today, and having sewn it up I felt a photograph was called for.  It is a beret style of hat with a quite easy cable panel alternating with plain stocking stitch panels.  Nothing very glamorous, but I'm more interested in warmth than appearance these days.

I've started knitting the jumper with the wool that I bought at the same time as that for the hat.  It is very chunky yarn and is knitting up quickly.  But it will probably end up being my fall-back knitting over the next couple of weeks.  That's the knitting that I have on the go when I am knitting something very complicated that I sometimes need a break from.  Tomorrow I will be starting to knit the Shetland lace shawl and I am sure that I will need to take breaks from it now and again.

I will keep you posted about how the shawl progresses, and will add photographs regularly so that you can see the delicate patterns that are included in the shawl.  Wish me luck, because I have never knitted anything so fine before, and I am a little nervous about such an undertaking.