AN AMAZING LACE UPDATE

When last I wrote about my partnership with the WRS I described the difficult time we were having due to my wandering eye and my philandering fingers. Since that time there has been a new development. On Saturday, Mr. Chart decided he had enough of my cheating ways and left me. I immediately hired Lefteria Handious (a/k/a Leftie) to find Mr. Chart. After several minutes of searching Leftie found Mr. Chart behind my bookshelf. After returning Mr. Chart to me I knit one row and then tried to teach Mr. Chart a lesson by working on a summer tank top for the rest of my knitting time. Mr. Chart remained in place up to last night. After some considerable trouble with one of my flings, I decided to work another row of WRS. Mr. Chart was duly helpful with this and did just what I wanted him to do, however, when the row was finished and I put WRS and Mr. Chart back in the pile of UFO beside my sofa I heard the noise of paper encased in plastic hitting hard wood floors. He did it again! Mr. Chart tried to leave me fo a second time in one week! Leftie was immediately hired again to track my fleeing partner. Leftie conducted a preliminary search and could not locate Mr. Chart, so Leftie brought in her sister, Rightia Handious ("Rightie"). Rightie insisted on searching behind the bookcase, even though Leftie found nothing. Between Rightie and Leftie the bookshelf was moved and Mr. Chart was discovered over 1/2 behind the bookshelf, further than he had made it before. Mr. Chart was again brought home to me, but what Mr. Chart seems to forget is that he is, in fact, only a working clone of the original pattern which is safely tucked away on the very bookshelf that he was hiding behind.

I now have 21 pattern rows done on WRS and have started the third motif of the center panel. I have a quarter on the shawl to give you a sense of the size of the piece. You may be wondering if my experiences with Mr. Chart trying to run away have stopped my multiple affairs, well wonder no more...

NON-AMAZING LACE KNITTING PROGRESS:

I finished Calla on Tuesday night. My modification of knitting the entire piece in the round instead of as 2 separate pieces worked fine. I did find the pattern boring after awhile, which might have been a result of the change. Pattern vitals: yarn used--Classic Elite Classic Silk, 4 skeins; needles used--24" addi turbos, US size 5; start date--May 31, 2006; end date--June 6, 2006. Problems: I think that my knitting looks sloppy, and I accidentally screwed up the center cable, so I decided to make that a "design feature" by making the same mistake at another repeat.

Since I was moving quickly on summer projects, and since I am trying to limit my yarn spending (gasp!) I pulled out my Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted and started the Twisted Float Shrug from Fall, 2005 VK. I started on Tuesday and got to the float part, which I tried to do using the two handed Fair Isle method, unfortunately my floats weren't twisted. I read the pattern, which talked about the yarn twisting and being careful not to untwist it, and then it untwisting in the following float row. I read and re-read the pattern. I tried dropping the yarn and doing what the pattern told you to do which ended up with the yarn all wrapped around itself, which I was continuously undoing. I tried to get the women at my s'nb to help me interpret the language, but there was no enlightenment there. I tore out and re-started, again and again, the pattern before leaving s'nb. I was frustrated but determined to figure it out. I went home and had a glass of red wine, and looked again at the pattern (I was finally back up to the float section) when finally, like a bolt of lightening, I realized the twists the pattern warned again untwisting weren't the floats, but the yarn going from my project to the cakes of yarn. The twists I was supposed to be protecting were the very twists that annoyed me before! After I realized that I was able to make some real progress on the project.