Well I’m over my snit from the other day. It helped that I calculated the cost of taking up golf as a hobby before putting my stash up for sale on eBay. First there’s the equipment, then the clothes, the lessons, the green fees and cart rentals. And then the golf vacations. I could handle all that. The deal breaker was the cost of the divorce when Jack got tired of being a golf widower. So I guess the stash is safe for now.
I went ahead and soaked the Eris cardigan on the off chance that I could even up the color variation a little. Nope. Despite the water turning deep red each time I soaked the sweater, there’s no change in the color. So the only solution is to rip and knit again. I have plenty of yarn, assuming it matches the rest of the sweater. Since the bottom is all short rows I can’t imagine alternating two balls of yarn while also tracking the short rows and then the cables and hem.
Because I don’t have the heart to rip it out just now, I’ve started a new shawl. It’s the Labyrinth Lace Shawl from Evelyn Clark Designs. I’m using a fingering weight yarn that I purchased from a friend. I know it’s merino and there’s more than 2000 yards and it’s deep red and that’s all I know. This is most of chart one.
Here’s part of the description from the Evelyn Clark website:
The shawl is diamond shaped with no repeats, so the instructions are 25 pages long, which includes 9 pages of charts. Pages for 3 of the 5 charts must be joined due to the length of the rows. While the lace is not difficult, the pattern is challenging since each of the 460 rows must be read. Not for the fainthearted, this design produces a portable labyrinth that has become my favorite travel accessory.
Unlike a maze that is designed to confuse, a labyrinth is a symbol for a successful journey. The path is not direct, and when it appears to stray, it still leads to the goal. On this reversible garter stitch lace shawl, the labyrinth’s path can be traced to the center and back out again.
The shawl is diamond shaped and has a leafy border with small flowers at the four corners and a larger one at the center. Picots can be knit at the edges, or they can be left plain.
This description makes it sound more intimidating than it is. Yes, you have to read every row, but it’s not a complicated pattern. There are large fields of plain knit between the lace elements and since it’s garter stitch, every other row is plain knit.
The biggest obstacle will be having to work with multiple charts for each row, but I’ll try to figure out short cuts when I get there.
Or maybe I just find it easier since I’m using a fingering weight yarn instead of my normal lace weight. It certainly makes a heavier shawl. It’s a departure for me and I expect I’ll be casting on for another shawl in a lighter weight yarn as soon as I have the time.
100 push ups challenge update
I’ve finished week three and made real progress. I’m now using the middle column rather than the highest tier. The first day I couldn’t meet the totals without struggling and actually fell short of the requirements for day 2. But I met my goals for day 3 with a series of 25/19/19/17/22 for a total of 102 push ups. Later today I’ll start week four and if I can hit the requirements than I’ll proceed. Otherwise, I’ll repeat week three. It’s all good. I’m definitely getting stronger and as long as I see progress each week that’s fine by me.
