Where I cannot knit lace

1. In poor lighting.
2. On a beach, although I got over that.
3. In the car. Even if I'm not driving.
4. At Peggy Kinnane's Irish pub during a session.
5. At Tuesday-night knitting group (sorry, ladies, too much talking)
6. At home, in silence, on the couch, under a lamp.

Sigh.

I've been working on my MIL's Christmas present, a lace scarf in Sea Silk. The pattern is not hard. It's from Victorian Lace Knitting, and it's even got the nice purl row on the back side to give me a break.
But, I swear, I've knit the same row something like eight or nine times. I made a mistake, so I tinked back. Then I made another mistake and tinked back some more because I realized I didn't go far enough back. Then I dropped a stitch but didn't notice because it was right on the edge and then I couldn't get anything to work right because I had 57 - not 58 - stitches in the row.
(It took me a couple times back and forth, knit a row, tink a row, knit a row, tink a row, to figure that out, because I wasn't quite smart enough to realize that if I counted the stitches on the needle first thing, I would have figured out what the problem was.)
So I tinked back all the way to the row with the dropped stitch and picked it up. Then I knit three rows. Then I tinked them back because I'd made another mistake.
Then last night, I sat down on the couch with no disturbances, checked my stitch count, checked it against the row I was about to knit ... and knit. Six rows.
I looked at it in satisfaction before I went to bed, convinced I'd finally overcome inertia on this project, but no.
I still made a mistake. And I still have to tink it back. And I cannot for the life of me figure out why I keep breaking down here. Unless the knitting is trying to tell me that it does not want to be a scarf; it wants to be a placemat.

Comments

LaurieM said…
Bleh. Maybe it's a nasty pattern and you need something friendlier.
Anonymous said…
Oh boy, does this sound familiar. You'll get there.
Franklin said…
Sounds like the same waltz I had with my first (attempted) lace project - the Branching Out scarf from Knitty.

I finally ripped it and decided I couldn't knit lace and would never try it again.

You shall overcome.

And remember, nobody gives a single placemat as a present. You'd have to make a set of four. Just finish the scarf.
Anonymous said…
yesterday, I think all the lace projects had little cans of whup-ass that they brought out to use on their knitters. Two of us sat with the same pattern, in different rows using different yarns knitting and tinking and knitting and tinking....
but we overcame.
You too will win. Trust me, Sea Silk LOVES to be lace!
Anonymous said…
You are the boss of your yarn.
Lanea said…
I hate it when that happens. I find that my learning curve the first time I try out a lace pattern is horrid. Fingers crossed for you.

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