i’m supposed to be working . . .

at least, i think i’m supposed to be working. well, and if i don’t want to be under the gun all week like i was last week, i should be working. but man, i just don’t feel like it!

i received a stack of revisions friday at 7 pm that went something like: “edits to such-and-such project are on the server for you”. does that mean i need to have them done by tomorrow? monday is my day to teach so i am gone all day, and generally, i work over the weekend to get caught up ahead of time.

but i worked in overdrive all week long trying to make a deadline with brand new material and a team that was behind. i had a knot in my stomach AND my head the whole time. it’s possible that i am contributing to my own nervous tension by blowing the importance of my contributions way out of proportion (hahaha!—ya think??). but then, i am always catching important errors that would go unnoticed otherwise, and my co-workers are ALWAYS leaning on me to solve problems that arise. so it’s hard to tell anymore whether i’m just driving myself crazy, or whether my job IS really insane. thank GOD i don’t work in the office . . .

anyway, what i meant to say was that i had really looked forward to having two whole days over the weekend to just do crazy stuff like swatch for man lace (above) and finish my shawl and maybe ride my bike. and guess what? once i started doing THOSE things, i did not even want to look at the computer. the knot inside my head is almost gone, too.

of course, that means i did not answer many emails yesterday. my apologies—and so many people wrote to say so many nice things about the shawl in progress, and to give advice. thank you. so, it’s after noon on sunday and i’m not sure if i should have those revisions back tomorrow or not—hmm, what to do . . .

i know, let’s not think about that right now—let’s look at some knitting!

i started off the weekend by working on the shawl and resolving the issues i had with the point. i think this looks like what i had in my head—delicate, with nothing weird going on that would distract one from seeing the whole shawl.

i decided after all, to rip back and end the body of the piece with the last spade shape. a few extra decreases there gave the point a nice slope that is not too pointy and eliminated some extra edge stitches that were there. that brought the edging together at the center, and i worked one more repeat while decreasing in the center a few times to draw it in.

after the last row of edging bind-off (the row that makes it saw-toothed), i grafted the remaining stitches together instead of binding off. i think the whole thing makes a good solution, and does not draw attention away from the spades.

you might wonder why i am putting so much time into finishing this piece (wait, wait—you haven’t seen me agonize over the top edging yet . . .). i mean, after all, it’s almost done—let’s get on with it already (we won’t talk about trying to prolong the cashmere experience)!

well, when i first worked in the fashion business as a young stitcher, about 97 years ago, someone said to me “finishing is two-thirds of the job, and requires 90 percent of your expertise”. and over the course of my adult life, i have found that to be a guiding rule on so many levels, that is has become, more or less, a truth.

i am a huge fan of finishing work—and every week i learn some new way to apply the principles of the fine finish to some life situation as well as some knitting or stitching dilemma. hey—all this mucking about in wool has GOT to have fringe benefits, eh?

so where was i? oh yes, the top edging. after i finished out the point to my satisfaction i managed to get the provisional cast-on out, and the stitches back on the needle before i turned in friday night. i even did a few repeats of the tinier picot edging i had chosen (everyone pretty much agreed that was the right thing—i gotta go with consensus)

and at 3 am, the verdict was—crap!

not totally, but more or less—not what i was loooking for. i liked the stitch, and the placement. the problem—scale.

too loose and too big—it was rivalling the size of the oak leaf edging and that was bad because it made is seem as if they should match, but did not. i wanted that stitch, but daintier. so i took out the row i had knit off with the size 7 needles i used for the shawl body, and reknit that with a smaller needle. then i experimented with several sizes of DPNs for knitting the edging on with, and settled on a size 5 (down from the original size 7).
and i got this:

now this i like. the proportions seem right all around.
i went to town on that saturday night and got about 80-percent through the top edge. just a little bit to go and i’ll be done! debbie is coming over for a while to knit today, and i can finish it while we gab. i might even get to block it tonite.

my heart just started pounding—i love blocking. and, i am a nut.