Illness intervenes

By and large, I write my blog posts on Sundays as well as publish them. It's a routine I've got into, and it serves me well. But it does leave me at the mercy of last-minute events. Case in point - today I was all set to write a blog post about a new (and very squirrelly) project I have begun, but then I developed a migraine. So instead, it's a short progress report on my Shropshire Lass shawl and then bed.

I took the shawl with me on my recent trip north, expecting to work on it during the evenings. What I hadn’t taken into account was just how absurdly busy Edinburgh is these days, even in October. There was one day when the crowds in my birthplace were really getting me down, so I went back to the hotel, grabbed my knitting bag, and sought refuge in the calm of the West Port Garden.

Knitting in peace and late autumn sun

There's not a lot to show, really, as the first part of the shawl is a repeated lace motif.

Agnes shawl, images © Kath Andrews Designs

As ever, I started on straight needles. And, for reasons which escape me, chose to make stitch counting 'easier' by splitting the pattern sections into three with markers.

Why?

This enabled me to tell when I'd made a mistake (usually forgetting a yarnover), but not where I'd made it. And as I already knew from my Dahlia shawl, undoing lace knitting is not fun. Eventually sanity prevailed and I placed a marker at the end of each motif. Yes, I have to stop and count after every eight stitches, but this is still quicker and less stressful than trying to undo a double-decrease stitch.

S2kpo - the stuff of unpicking nightmares

Proving that I do, sometimes, learn from my mistakes, I did at least remember to transfer onto a cable needle before I reached any sort of stitches-falling-off-the needle crisis.

The joys of common sense

I have just completed my first colour change. For now it looks fairly subtle, but it may become more obvious once I have knitted a few more rows.

From one red to another

Finding out will have to wait until tomorrow, as lace knitting and migraines really do not mix!