A Mighty Scare

This happened in mid-August:

In the days leading up to my PhD defense, there was much knitting being done. Partly I was trying to make a deadline so I could give the shawl to my advisor as a thank you gift, but mostly it was to give me something to focus on to manage my nerves. Apparently I didn't focus enough, because I ended up with a stray eyelet.

I was 4-5 rows past the mistake when I noticed it, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to fix it without ripping back that far. I took it in to my LYS and they tried to fix it, but once I was back home and looking at it, I wasn't satisfied with the fix.

So I did this:

I have never been so scared. I pulled my needles out and ripped back 4 rows. I had more than 250 live stitches just a hair's breadth away unravelling into the last eyelet section ... something I was sure I couldn't recover from if it happened. Without a care for direction, I carefully slipped every stitch back on my needle, holding my breath the entire time (which also helped me not throw up). It was nerve wracking.

I managed to pick them up without missing any, and the next row I knit was slow going as I had to reorient every stitch properly. But I did it!!! (I'm a pretty novice knitter, and this is probably the biggest fix I've ever had to do.)

I successfully defended my PhD, but did not get the shawl done in time. I'm working on the last 4-5 rows now and hope to have it done and blocked by the end of September.

Ardent by Janina Kallio
Hazel Knits Entice in Indigo

This has been a project of firsts ... first major lace project, first major error, first major fix, and first of my big projects almost done!

I know I wasn't supposed to ...

At the beginning of the year, I had decided not to start anything new until I finished a few things. Well, that lasted about 30 seconds. There's just something fun and awesome, something energizing, about starting a new project.

In March, I caved and started a baby blanket for a hypothetical baby. No one is pregnant yet, but there is ... hope. (It's not me, so there will not be a bunch of baby pics on here; my brother and sister-in-law are trying.) Since I likely won't know about the pregnancy until they are at least 3 months along, and I figure a baby shower would happen around the 7-8 month mark, well, then that means I'd only have 3-5 months to get the blanket done. We all know I am not efficient at getting projects done, so I figured I should start now and work on it as I can.

So, my sister-in-law's favourite colour is orange. My least favourite colour is orange. This might be a bit of a struggle for me. However, I wound up some gorgeous Hazel Knits Lively DK in Carnelian.

I found a really pretty (and simple) lace baby blanket pattern called the Pine Forest Baby Blanket. and started on the border. Love me some garter stitch!

I struggled on the first lace repeat or two, but finally got the hang of it and it's starting to look good!

I still think it's going to take months to complete, but I'm aiming to knit two rows a day. It is growing!