WWC: One stitch too many
This is my lesson in perseverance. Us ladies at work found out that we have a real professional class knitter in our ranks. She can whip out a sweater in a little less than two week's time and gives classes at the local fabric shop. I have known her for 15 years, speaking to her several times a week on the phone. Who knew?
Not wanting to miss a great opportunity, we asked her to pass along some pearls of wisdom to a few beginners. Before long, there were five of us in our little onceaweek knitting circle. She started me out on a shawl. I can do this. Cast on 4 stitches, knit one row; slip one, knit one, yarnover. Oh, yeah. I can do this. This is going to be great fun!
Not. What you see here is the product of my third [three (3) tries] attempt. I have ripped the entire thing out twice already. I was on a roll. I've gone from my original four stitches to 119; not once, not twice, but three times. This morning I laid it out on the table just to enjoy the fruits of my labor and guess what? Do you see it? I did the same $%#!@*& thing all over again. Somehow or other I have gained a stitch and moved my entire pattern over to the right. Again.Just in case you can't see it, here is a little help...
Did you know that you can knit backwards? I didn't. It might have been nice to know that before I ripped it out the last two times. Completely. 
If you knit backwards, moving the stitch from the previous row back onto the needle, all the while pulling out the newest stitch, for 0nehundredandnineteen stitches, you can go back four $%#!@*& rows instead of ripping the whole thing out. Eventually you will end up with a pile of yarn about four times this size.
So, I have only three more rows to knit backwards.I will persevere. And yes, I will overcome.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
There was a visitor outside our office window on Friday. One of these days I will be on the same side of the glass as the critter I am trying to photograph! This was pretty cool, though. Right here in River City.
He even sat still while we opened the blinds. How great was that?
posted by gawilli at 8:30 PM
14 Comments:
That bird wanted your attention, I hope he was trying to deliver you some good luck for an up-coming event :)
That bird is something else! He even stayed there after you raised the blinds. A hawk for sure, only birds of prey are so fearless.
As for the knitting, it seems to be a lot of persevere. I am certain it will be an overcome lying across your shoulders. Good luck.
Being a somewhat pitiful knitter, I feel your pain. I, too, have ripped out more times than I care to count. Now, I stick to scarves with fuzzy wools. Much more forgiving!
That bird had a message for you. Glad to see you got it. I wonder how s-l-o-w-l-y you raised the blinds? :)
Cazzie! Maybe we will have an even more blessed Thanksgiving celebration. He certainly had my attention!
Willi - yep, I am looking forward to throwing that shawl over my shoulders. Sure hope I overcome before summer. Ha!
Chelle, scarves with fuzzy wools sounds like a good idea - I will certainly keep that in mind. You are right...we raised the blinds VERY slowly. I think we were much more flustered than he was!
That bird is beyond cool!
I think knitting takes too much concentration and general talent for me.
Oh, goodness, I can't believe a hawk perched on the little birdfeeder crook. How awesome!! As for knitting, good luck!! I don't have the patience, but I love the results!
Your hawk is magnificent. From your picture, you seem to be accomplished at knitting the shawl except you have hit a momentary obstacle. You will be wearing the lovely shawl in a few weeks.
My sister, who is left-handed, taught me a right-handed little sister, how to do many things. Some the things that she taught me I do with my left hand. Knitting was one of things that I was not able to learn. The first row, which I think is the knitting part, I could do. The second row, do I remember correctly as the purling part, I could never get right. The second row, I always undid my first row. This either because I have some kind of dyslexia on my part or maybe because of my lack of perserverance.
(I am serious about the dyslexia; I cannot retrace my steps. If I were to visit your lovely home, I would look it up on MapQuest first... Really!)
I would be thrilled to have that bird visit me...you don't suppose he was there to give you a little support on your knitting project? Keep going, I'm sure you'll get it.
my mum used to be able to sit knit and watch telly for hours and hours without looking at it and it was all done right.
Those birds are lovely what great pics.
I bet the little birds who eat out of that feeder he was sitting on were not too happy! But so very cool for the rest of us! Thanks for having your camera ready.
what a beautiful pic of the hawk wow! used to knit for my son when he was little, but he said the jumpers were itchy! so i packed it in! used to cook to but thats another story!
Great bird shot. The knitting is coming along. The productivity is right there and in no time the product will be completed. Craft stuff is good stuff.
I LOVE that you posted knitting pics! Can your knitting expert come over to my house?! I just know how to knit, purl, increase and decrease :-P
Could that hawk(?) be a totem animal for you or willi?
Jay...looks like it takes too much concentration for me also.
Songbird - I wonder if he was looking for his dinner from the birds that would have been there for their dinner.
Mjd - I doubt it was a lack of perseverance. I have not known you to give up on anything yet...even when I am ready to throw in the towl!
Ginnie! We were pretty thrilled also! I still cannot believe he didn't scare off - kind of looks like he was watching us rather than us watching him!
Jo, I think my problem was that I was carrying on a conversation with Willi and lost track of what I was doing. I can knit and listen to the tv, but I tend to get lost if I don't pay attention to the needles. Oh, well.
Dilling - now that people know I always have my camera they come to get me for the coolest stuff. This trusty little mother's day camera has been the most fun. I'm not a snap photographer but I do enjoy it.
Her Indoors, itchy jumpers would not be a good thing. I don't think my kids would wear what I knit, but I did used to sew for them. I would like to hear your cooking story.
Daddy D, you always look at things in a positive light and that's a good thing.
Graymama! We get together with our knitting expert in the break room at our office after work, although it would be nice if she made house calls! I need to learn about the totem animal...
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