Lace Not, Want Not

You guys, you guys— lace knitting might kill me.

No, seriously. See this?

This took hours and hours. Not because I didn't know the stitches (I do, I swear), but because I am using mohair. Mohair. Why? Because I saw a really beautiful shawl made in it on teensy teensy two point needles in the LYS in my parents' town. The sweet elderly lady who runs the store was telling me that I could do it, too, and that this particular kind of mohair was very forgiving. It better be. 

The pattern is gorgeous, but the whole time I was working last night the yarn kept slipping off my beloved Susan Bates needles until I was ready to get out the scissors and shred the whole thing. I finally got a clue and switched to some bamboo DPNs, which gripped the yarn so much better. It's still tricky, but I managed to get a good three inches done. (I'm working on sixes, guys. This should not be so hard.) 

As you can see in the picture, it looks a little wonky but I think blocking will help fix that. Ha ha. Like I've ever blocked ANYTHING. It looks like I'm going to have to do that. We will see what the verdict is when I finish. If I finish. I may give the whole thing to Miss Kitty for her to make a nest in. 

Welcome

I think a short introduction and welcome is in order here, since I am (finally, after much nagging  encouragement from Boyfriend) kicking off this blogging experiment. So: Hi. I'm Kate. I'm in graduate school, studying English, so I spend a lot of time reading, writing, and thinking. I envision this as a place to record my slightly less scholarly (but still all-consuming) interests. I own an elderly Labrador Retriever and a small cat, and I spend a lot of time boring other people with the minute details of their entirely adorable lives. I also love to cook, and when I am not cooking, I like to talk about food.

Then there's the knitting. I learned two knit a little over two years ago, from my then-roommate and current best friend. She's an awesome person who multi-talented and able to approach her hobbies with a healthy, sane mindset. She is not an obsessive knitter, but is a really good knitter and she makes beautiful scarves and other cool things while she watches TV. In other words, she uses knitting to de-stress and she taught me the basic knit and purl stitches, as well as how to cast on and bind off. I did about half a scarf and forgot about it. Fast forward six months later— I had just graduated from college and was living at home, looking for a job in a terrible economy and substitute teaching in the meantime. I was sad a lot and I missed Boyfriend and all my friends. I needed something to keep me sane. About this time, my awesome and talented aunt mentioned that she was learning to knit (she is a life long rug hooker) and would I like to come along to the LYS with her?

I've been pretty much obsessed ever since, even though I get frustrated with all my failures. Every time I think I have this craft down, I find out I have been knitting through the back loops (true story) or twisting my yarn wrong (ditto) or that you are supposed to drop those slipped stitches when you psso (you guessed it). I was telling this to the 85-year-old woman who runs the LYS in my hometown and she, with a sweet smile, put her hand on my arm and said, "Well, baby, you're never going to get it right all the time. I still make mistakes. That's life."

I think that's pretty good advice. And so I'm still knitting.