Icarus has had a sad existence in our house for the last 2 years. Totally mesmerized by the pattern I cast on really, really skinny yarn on really skinny needles and happily knit until I lost interest and tossed it aside for about 18 months. Well, I picked the poor thing up a bit ago and ripped it out as I'd only completed about 2 repeats of chart 1. What's a couple repeats, right? Uh, yeah. Those of you who have completed the chart 1 repeats know of the feeling of zipping along, back and forth, delighted as you easily get the first 2 or 3 repeats done, then to settle into a more sedate but comfortable rhythm for the easy-to-remember chart as you work repeats 4 and maybe even 5. And maybe a few were fool enough like me to pick darn near the skinniest 100% Merino yarn on the planet and even downsize the needles from 3's to 2's, therefore needing to increase the repeats to 6 before the final partial run through chart 1 and then getting to hop to chart 2, postponing the elation of completing chart 1 for ever and ever. If so then my fellow fools may remember my current stage- get chart 1 done no matter what the heck you find wrong in your knitting.
Serious, I want to move onto chart 2 soooo bad I have been bringing Icarus to the bank and wherever else I will need to wait to conduct business or errands every day. On Saturday we were driving home in the evening from Bloomington after a family supper and I carefully propped a giant straw hat up to shield the sleeping Critter's eye's from the dome light on the way home. I was bleary-eyed and the road could have been smoother but by golly I was going to knit until my hands went numb. "One more row, just one more row" I muttered. What? I'm focused, there is nothing wrong with that. Who said "obsessed"? Pipe down, you!
So, finish chart 1 no matter what, right? Accept mistakes and move on, right? I want it dully noted that I did not have a full-blown hissy fit tonight when, on the final partial run through chart 1 I noticed that some of my rows in the pattern are not the same width as the other rows. What the heck, must be my eyes play tricks on me. If you have not knit this shawl look at the picture below, see how there are the big columns that are created as you knit?
Well, here's a shot of the shawl after finishing all the repeats of chart 1, with an extra one thrown in for good measure.
Notice anything wrong? Look close. Yep, the columns are not equal widths. There should always be 7 knit stitches for each repeat. Not in my shawl, oh, no. Ha! Just to throw you all off I sometimes have 8 stitches, maybe 6, and even, to really mess with you, only 5 stitches. No, I did not drink a drop of alcohol during the knitting of this poor creature. Promise.
The good news is I am on to chart 2. Woot!
