It's pretty, yeah? That's all the colors except the green, but that comes next after 26 more rows of the dark grey. It'll be pretty, all told, as the colors really are very nice. I particularly like the purple and the red, myself.
Remember this lot? The Kidsilk Crack from Rowan? You'll note (if, like me, you're addicted enough to the yarn) there are two new balls there. The chocolate brown (ooh, chocolate!) at top left, the khaki greenish at bottom center (which has the unfortunate name of "Dun". Doesn't quite do the shine justice, does it?) I wanted the extra yarn for length and width, as I'm knitting with the yarns doubled up. I've been frightened of this particular project for the past three weeks or longer (since I chose the project for the yarn.) Two or three days ago, I had a series of nightmares; two to be precise. In the first, I was trapped in New Orleans (I don't like the city, it's a side effect of being a New York-type girl--the rules of walking the streets of New York in safety are very precise, very simple, and very counter to human behavior in New Orleans, which makes me feel horribly, horribly unsafe. Drives me nuts.) I kept trying to leave, and every road I started down turned around and led me right back to the French Quarter. As if New Orleans was at the center of some wicked kink in the space/time matrix, and I kept getting shunted along streams that took me back to center. After that harrowing dream, I had a second one wherein I cast on for the shawl and the yarn kept tangling. And I do mean fatally tangling, to the point where I couldn't even frog back and start again, but had to cut the knitted end off and start over. I had something like six or seven tangle balls that I couldn't undo. Not a restful night, let me tell you. Dreaming over and over again about knots. So, anyway, today I decided (after putting it off for days on end) that today I would cast on, come hell or high water, because it's only slightly more embarassing to be afraid of my knitting than the natural state of embarassment to which I am accustomed in my day to day life. So while the water is, indeed, pretty high--it's been raining for about a month now--, hell was polite enough to keep itself to itself, and I cast on anyway. Don't believe me?
There you go. Sorry for the vaguely...suggestive composition of this picture. I didn't realize what I was doing until I actually downloaded the picture; I was still in shock that I'd cast on and knit two rows (the set-up rows before the pattern begins.) So, anyway. I cast on and knit the two prep rows, took a nap, went out for a bit and finally caved in to the realization that I'd used needles two to three sizes too large. Shit. And I didn't have bamboo in the right sizes (I vastly prefer bamboo for lace knitting for both the grip and the resilience of the bamboo; when doing fiddly knitting I tend to keep a death grip on the needles, so a little bounce keeps my wrists happy). A side trip to a very local craft store later, and:
On what I'm really hoping is the proper size of needle, because I'm not doing this again. 101 stitches in tense, tangle-prone and very unhappy yarn. Don't get me wrong, it will make for a lovely fabric, and I'll enjoy it immensely, but while knitting.... I'm sure I'll use more naughty words as I go. Anyway, the first cast on was done while watching "Ancient Discoveries" in the sunny afternoon (I say watching, but I've seen them all before, so it was more like "listening to while doing other, more interesting things because total silence drives me ape-excrement because I'm listening for the sound of anything and it makes me tense") and the second while watching "Doctor Who"--the new one for this week, not the replay of the last one. And I still managed to get the stitches right, which I find fascinating. Although, to be fair, I only did the cast on and first row, so I'm not quite as far along on the second attempt as I was on the first before it went to the great frog pond in the knitting basket. Oh, yeah, and off to the left in that picture? Far in the back? You want to know what that is?
Nightmare yarn wad!
I was right, in my dream. This stuff doesn't frog. It just knots up like a son of a buck and sticks there. I better never mess up, 'cause once this stuff gets knitted, it just don't un-knit. If there's any consolation, it's that I probably won't need a rescue line. It'll be the scissors and nightmare wads for me.
I'm going to go have some yogurt with chocolate chips on it. It's my reward, I think, for being so very, very brave and casting on like a big girl. *eye roll*
Jesus, I need to get a grip. And yes, that is a prayer.
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