The Comfort Zone

I love how my family all love my knitted objects!!  The Feather Lace Shawl was seized by dear DIL#3 60 seconds or less after taking the pictures.  I asked GD#3 to model the shawl at our Sunday birthday celebration for DH.  Since she is my regular model she was happy to oblige but she didn’t know she would have the shawl snatched right off of her body by her aunt. 

 
My sweet little Thai DIL is almost exactly the size and weight of 14 year-old GD#3 but you don’t want to stand in her way when she sees something she wants and she wanted Feather Lace the minute she saw it.  “What is that?” she called across the room, followed by “Who is it for?” and then “I want it!”  She had the shawl around the neck of her tank top when she left for home.  Her parting words were “Oh Mom you are so wonderful!!”  Does it get any better than that?

I thought I had decided not to knit Christmas gifts this year but I am well on my way to a bunch of gifts.  I have six scarves completed and the yarn and pattern for a half dozen felted cup cozies (for all my Starbucks loving men) so maybe I am knitting Christmas gifts after all.  Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m knitting!  It’s sort of like head-down data entry at the computer.  You just keep going and occasionally stop to see where you are.  This is me reviewing–and I’m not doing badly at all.

 
Life is good!

Enjoying lace knitting has a lot to do with the fact that I have been able to finish a few lace projects with good results.  There is something, however, about Feather Lace Shawl that is bothering me.  Being the novice lace knitter that I am I have developed a foolproof method of following a chart/pattern without errors—counting stitches.  I put stitch markers after every stitch pattern repeat and count the stitches on the chart and then the stitches between markers.  If they don’t agree I know I have done something wrong and start tinking.

So where did I go wrong with Feather Lace?  There are two stitch repeats in the 24 row pattern that never work out.  There are six stitches between every marker in each row and on these two rows I am missing a stitch between one set of markers.  I’ve counted it over and over—right number between markers—wrong number of stitches.  This is where I stopped knitting lace before but I refuse to let it beat me this time. 

So here is my solution, short of contacting the designer and asking why I am such a dunce that the pattern is not clear to me, I have added one stitch between the markers containing the problematic set of stitches.  I know that I am causing the problem so it seems reasonable to me that I should also fix it!  In doing so, I have discovered a universal truth…if you make the same mistake in every sequence of stitches it becomes a design element and looks just fine!!

I am fully aware that this is not the accepted method for solving a design problem, but if it keeps me happily knitting lace then I’m loving it warts and all.

BTW I hope to finish the last 24 rows tonight and block tomorrow. 

Seafoam Shawl is growing thanks to a week of vacation knitting.  I also took a few licks at Silk Stream scarf

and Feathers and lace shawl 

The rest of the family played at the beach 

and other places like DGD#3 at the bungee bounce.

The purpose of the whole trip was golf at the bigger, newer, beachside course, but I have to ask you, would you play golf at a place where you were reminded of this…

Thanks, but no thanks!  It’s good to be home!!

No photos blog:  my camera was locked in a box with DS#3’s camera equipment in the back of his car and there it remains for the next couple days while he works three back-to-back 12 hour shifts in surgery (to make up for the vacation time off).  I promise there will be pictures soon!

DH likes to take things as they come because, he says, plans often don’t work out the way they are intended.  Last week was a perfect example.  We were to leave for beach and sun in Port Aransas on Wednesday morning but I had a full blown case of tachycardia with arrhythmia.  That’s when your heart decides to put on running shoes and run a marathon while doing the cha cha. So DH and I spent Wednesday morning in the cardiologist’s office while the rest of the family went off to the beach.  By Thursday at noon I was cleared to travel after promising to come back for more tests on our return.

Once at the beach it was golf-beach-surf-beach-golf-shop-beach…for everyone but me.  I did my time by the pool and on a lawn chair under a tree in the bird park, but there was no sun and sand for me because my heart started speeding up every time I became overheated.  I did get to eat some of the best seafood in the world and I did spot some amazing birds with my new binoculars, a gift from DS#3, so all was not lost.

No biggie!  When you are with family and you all come together at the end of the day and, as we say in Texas, “love on each other” it is as good as it gets!!
  
I did knit a lot of the Seafoam Shawl which is a boring stitch but is fast and really pretty.  I also read one of my books and started the other so I was busy and happy.  Life is good and I’m glad to be back!

I finished birthday boy’s skull and crossbones hat…

One of the little skulls seems to have a mind of its own!  When I reached the point where the skull faces began to emerge I noticed that one of the little guys was grinning at me.  He seemed to be saying, “Man is it dead in this joint.”  Or, “Just my luck to get stuck with a bunch of ghouls.”  I have named him Oscar.    It just seemed right.

The Hudson River Triangle is finished and ready for blocking so I will not be taking it with me.  Instead I have cast on for Silk Stream Scarf (one of Red Bird Knits sample lace scarves) and Seafoam Shawl.  One of the two will be the lucky travel knit project.  It’s these BIG knitting decisions that cause me packing problems!!

I have books to read so knitting will not be taking up all of my time.  I plan to re-read Clive Cussler’s Raise the Titanic—a great book that I enjoyed years ago.  I am also taking one of James Patterson’s women’s murder club mysteries.  I’m a mystery novel freak!
So off I go.  I hope you all have a great week!